Recognising autism in healthcare

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Doherty, M., Haydon, C., & Davidson, I. A. (2021). Recognising autism in healthcare. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 82(12), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.12968/hmed.2021.0313

Publication date: 2 Dec 2021 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)
  1. Mary Doherty *
  2. Clair Haydon
  3. Ian A Davidson

Abstract

Recognition of autism and the associated co-occurring physical and mental health issues has increased over recent years. However, undergraduate and postgraduate curricula take time to adapt and to impact on what is delivered in training so healthcare professionals, including doctors, report little training on these topics. Doctors need to know when someone might be autistic in order to respond to them appropriately. This article sets out the reasons why recognition of autism is important and the positive impacts of recognising and understanding autism on health outcomes, service delivery and patient experience. The negative consequences of not recognising autism or understanding the impact of autistic traits on the person are also explored. A companion article then covers how practice can be made more appropriate for autistic people to improve outcomes.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
27
With a DOI
26
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
1
1 / 27 (3.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 27 (3.7%)
References with detected author names
26 / 27 (96.3%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
1
Without a stable identifier
1
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
133
From DOI or external metadata
133
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
54 / 133 (40.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 79 / 133 (59.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
3 / 133 (2.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 3 / 54 (5.6%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 3 / 118 (2.5%).
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