# Clinical disclaimer

**ASD_Seeker is research / decision-support software. It is NOT a medical device, NOT
FDA-cleared, and NOT for stand-alone diagnosis.**

## Intended use

An **adjunctive reference** that shows, for a single subject, how their brain-imaging
derived features deviate from a normal (control) reference space, which evidence
markers contribute, and how uncertain the read is. It is meant to support, not replace,
a clinician's judgement.

## Not intended use

- Not a stand-alone diagnostic test for autism or any condition.
- Not a substitute for standardized behavioral assessment (e.g. ADOS, SRS),
  developmental history, caregiver interview, or specialist evaluation.
- Not a basis for treatment decisions on its own.
- Not validated for any clinical population outside the ABIDE I reference, and not
  prospectively validated in a care setting.

## How to read a result

- The verdict band places a subject on a **Normal ↔ ASD** continuum with an explicit
  **inconclusive zone**. When a case lands there, the correct action is to **defer** and
  rely on behavioral assessment.
- A result "toward ASD" is a statistical deviation from a reference cohort, **not** a
  diagnosis. A result "toward Normal" does **not** rule out autism.
- Absent markers (e.g. all DTI / white-matter measures) mean **not measured in this
  ABIDE I-only build**, not "normal".

## Performance honesty

- The public demo runs a model with **leave-one-site-out AUROC ≈ 0.626** — modest,
  honest cross-site generalization. Per-site AUC ranges 0.31–0.73.
- A headline **AUROC 0.91** refers to a separate **internal validated model whose
  public release is pending**; its data and weights are not in this repository, and the
  demo does **not** use it.
- Behavioral assessment remains the clinical standard. Imaging here is adjunct.

## Data

Built only on public, de-identified datasets (ABIDE I, ADHD-200) under their data-use
terms. See [DATA.md](../DATA.md). No protected health information is processed or stored.

## No warranty

Provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, under the Apache-2.0 license. The
authors accept no liability for clinical or other decisions made using this software.