When Google partners with ABA: An Interview on the ABA DrOmnibus App

By Todd A. Ward, PhD, BCBA-D

bSci21Media, LLC

“Our business is to help BCBAs do their business.”

Those were the words of Michal Rys, CoFounder of DrOmnibus, a technology company that specializes in app development for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services. The company is one of only four European companies to join Google’s Launchpad Accelerator program and the only company in the ABA industry to do so.

I sat down with Michal and his partner Wojciech Bieronski, Head of Research and Development, to discuss their product and its entrance into the U.S. market.

According to Michal, the United States has more children in need of ABA services than are therapists and Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) to provide them, which created a demand for technologies that will allow more learners to be served with quality services. ABA DrOmnibus was created by behavior analysts for behavior analysts to aid and help with these shortcomings. Unlike many tools for BCBAs which focus mostly on data collection, ABA DrOmnibus emphasizes both resources and data collection. The system contains 7,000 tasks which are presented to the child as ABA teaching trials. “This way, it can work as a valuable tool during therapy, as well as promote the continuation of it at home” – says Wojciech.

ABA DrOmnibus developers spent two years on the implementation of ABA principles into their software. It allowed them to recreate AI-based personalized teaching which contains pretests, trials, prompting and rewarding that will look very familiar to behavior analysts. The data gathering and graphing in the tool is automated, and a variety of communication options are available to BCBAs within the app. 

To reduce the possibility of inadvertent reinforcement or overstimulation, the interface was designed to be devoid of auditory and visual distractors. And it is an interface whose User Experience (UX) has been vetted as part of Google’s program, along with the methodologies underlying program development and data analytics within the app. According to Wojciech, the app is “probably the first app in the world that is truly tailored to children with special needs.”  The customized interface makes it unlikely that incorrect answers will be reinforced by by uncontrolled sound effects after making an error.

The App is about to receive important new features in forthcoming months. According to Michal, “ultimately we want ABA DrOmnibus to facilitate service delivery in three ways – by reducing travel time to meet clients, reducing preparation time for meetings, and reducing time spent writing reports.”

This is why DrOmnibus developers plan is to create a large database of thousands of pictures and videos that can be retrieved via Artificial Intelligence algorithms to automatically find material sorted along particular tasks, colors, functions, and a variety of other characteristics. In this way, a therapist will be able to, for example, provide a video model for motor imitation skills while simultaneously providing physical guidance to the learner. “We definitely want to focus on customization now. We want to give you the possibility of getting super quick assistance from the app, based on the resources we provide” – Wojciech adds.

If you are interested in learning more about DrOmnibus, or receiving a free 14-day trial of their app, you can visit the company site here.  Also, if you would like to provide consultations and share your experience related to ABA therapy in the U.S., let us know at [email protected].

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Todd A. Ward, PhD, BCBA-D is the President and Founder of bSci21Media, LLC, which owns the top behavior analytic media outlet in the world, bSci21.org.  bSci21Media aims to disseminate behavior analysis to the world and to support ABA companies around the globe through the Behavioral Science in the 21st Century blog and its subsidiaries, bSciEntrepreneurial, bSciWebDesign, bSciWriting, bSciStudios and the ABA Outside the Box CEU series.  Dr. Ward received his PhD in behavior analysis from the University of Nevada, Reno under Dr. Ramona Houmanfar.  He has served as a Guest Associate Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, and as an Editorial Board member of Behavior and Social Issues.  Dr. Ward has also provided ABA services to children and adults with various developmental disabilities in day centers, in-home, residential, and school settings, and previously served as Faculty Director of Behavior Analysis Online at the University of North Texas.  Dr. Ward is passionate about disseminating behavior analysis to the world and growing the field through entrepreneurship. Todd can be reached at [email protected]