Jul 28, 2026 · 42 min · 12 segments
Dr. Mary Barbera interviews Amol Deshpande, creator of the Frontera app and father of a son with autism, about his mission to improve early autism detection and access to care. They discuss biomarker…
So I often say I, quote unquote, "fell into the autism world way back in 1999." Um, can you take us back to your fall into the autism world when your son was first starting to show signs of autism?
We knew he was developmentally behind, but didn't really have a sense of what, what the issue was.
And to be very candid with you, our pediatrician wasn't terribly helpful, uh, on that front, so we were left sort of navigating that situation.
And it was actually in a preschool setting that we saw that, you know, there was, there was issues.
And, uh, through a series of, of kind of phone calls, networking, everything else, 'cause back then, even now, it's very hard to get access to care, uh, ultimately private paid for a diagnosis, got him diagnosed and got him into therapy when he was two, three years old.
And, um, you know, I, I will tell you that thank God that, that, that happened because the therapy had a very transformative effect.
Uh, the whole s- process affected me, the process of how you learn about this, the doctors missing the signs, the difficulty of getting to diagnosis or therapy, and then the therapy working and the, the joy of seeing your kid make progress.
And all of these things together, you know, for me, were like thinking, gosh, this is, this is something, uh, this is a real issue in society and something that isn't taken seriously enough relative to other conditions that are similar, conditions of the brain.
So I set out, uh, after that, obviously with continuing interventions for my son, who's now 15, um, and have invested over $20 million of my own money to ...
in all kinds of things, um, technologies, breakthrough science, uh, clinics, y- you name it, um, really as a way to learn about what is going on out there, how are people dealing with this condition as entrepreneurs, as scientists, as clinicians, and what opportunities exist for breakthroughs, uh, for parents.
And then about two and a half years ago, started Frontiera, which, uh, has become now the leading artificial intelligence company in the industry, but also a deep tech company that's focused completely on getting access to quality care for parents.
Everything that we build, everything that we do there is focused on helping parents get, get access to quality care.
So I often say I, quote unquote, "fell into the autism world way back in 1999." Um, can you take us back to your fall into the autism world when your son was first starting to show signs of autism?
We knew he was developmentally behind, but didn't really have a sense of what, what the issue was.
And to be very candid with you, our pediatrician wasn't terribly helpful, uh, on that front, so we were left sort of navigating that situation.
And it was actually in a preschool setting that we saw that, you know, there was, there was issues.
And, uh, through a series of, of kind of phone calls, networking, everything else, 'cause back then, even now, it's very hard to get access to care, uh, ultimately private paid for a diagnosis, got him diagnosed and got him into therapy when he was two, three years old.
And, um, you know, I, I will tell you that thank God that, that, that happened because the therapy had a very transformative effect.
Uh, the whole s- process affected me, the process of how you learn about this, the doctors missing the signs, the difficulty of getting to diagnosis or therapy, and then the therapy working and the, the joy of seeing your kid make progress.
And all of these things together, you know, for me, were like thinking, gosh, this is, this is something, uh, this is a real issue in society and something that isn't taken seriously enough relative to other conditions that are similar, conditions of the brain.
So I set out, uh, after that, obviously with continuing interventions for my son, who's now 15, um, and have invested over $20 million of my own money to ...
in all kinds of things, um, technologies, breakthrough science, uh, clinics, y- you name it, um, really as a way to learn about what is going on out there, how are people dealing with this condition as entrepreneurs, as scientists, as clinicians, and what opportunities exist for breakthroughs, uh, for parents.
And then about two and a half years ago, started Frontiera, which, uh, has become now the leading artificial intelligence company in the industry, but also a deep tech company that's focused completely on getting access to quality care for parents.
Everything that we build, everything that we do there is focused on helping parents get, get access to quality care.
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