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The Scheduled for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children (K-SADS) is the most widely used and well validated diagnostic interview for children and adolescents.

Our Team

Details of the team members who have created and developed the KSADS-COMP.

Research Collabrators

Details of the researchers who conducted research on KSADS-COMP.

Our Consultants

Details of the consultants who contributed to the development of the KSADS-COMP.

Our Team:
Joan Kaufman, PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder
Joan Kaufman


Dr. Kaufman received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Yale University where she served on faculty in the Department of Psychiatry from 1998-2015. In 2015 she was recruited to Baltimore to serve as Director of Research at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI). She also held an appointment as a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Kaufman left KKI and academic medicine in August of 2022.

Dr. Kaufman’s research was predominantly in the area of child abuse and neglect, spanned from neurobiology to social policy, and used tools from psychology, genetics, and neuroscience to understand resilience and mechanisms of disease risk associated with early adversity. She received consistent funding from the National Institute of Health for her research, and she published over 100 peer-reviewed professional articles and book chapters. She also authored the book Broken Three Times: A Story of Child Abuse in America (Oxford University Press).The book is a narrative non-fiction story that follows one family through the child welfare system, with each chapter providing launching points for discussing state-of-the-art policy, practice, and scientific updates.

Dr. Kaufman is also first author on the paper-and-pencil KSADS child psychiatric diagnostic interview which has been translated into more than 30 languages, and she served as co-Principal Investigator on the grants funded to update the KSADS to the web-based computer-administered format. As one of the principal developers of the KSADS, Dr. Kaufman has served as a consultant on numerous federally-funded, and industry-sponsored child psychiatric clinical trials.

Contact Information:

Joan Kaufman, PhD
Telephone: (203) 772-8152
joan.kaufman@ksads-comp.com

Kenneth Kobak, PhD
Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder
Ken Kobak

Dr. Kobak has been conducting research on computer applications in psychiatry for over 25 years, including computerized assessments of adult and adolescent psychopathology, computer-administered psychotherapy, web-based clinical training and education, and use of mobile devices to enhance treatment compliance and treatment outcomes. These studies have made a substantial contribution to the published literature in the field.

Dr. Kobak earned a Ph.D. in counseling psychology in 1996. While managing a clinical trials research unit at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Dept. of Psychiatry, he pioneered development of several computer-administered rating scales that are widely used in clinical drug trials today. He founded Research Training Associates, a consultancy group using new technologies for training raters to improve reliability and validity in clinical trials.

In 2002 Dr. Kobak helped launch MedAvante, which provides remote, centralized clinical ratings in clinical drug trials. Since 2008 he has led the Center for Telepsychology which provides on-line continuing education on evidence-based psychotherapy treatments. Dr. Kobak has had continuous NIH funding since 2002 and was Principal Investigator on the four NIH grants received for the development of the web-based KSADS-COMP child psychiatric diagnostic tools. Dr. Kobak continues to leverage his scientific expertise and interests to stay at the forefront in research on computer applications in psychology.


Contact Information:

Kenneth Kobak, PhD
KSADS-COMP Inc.
22 North Harwood Circle
Madison, WI 53717
Phone/fax: 608-406-2621
ken.kobak@ksads-comp.com


www.telepsychology.net

Alison Deep, MCA
Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
Joan Kaufman

Mr. Deep has more than 23 years of experience in software development and systems integration in diversified projects and technologies, with expertise in the areas of clinical research, pharmacogenomic and life science research, bio pharmaceutical marketing and Managed Health Care. He has been working on KSADS program and SBIR grants for the past 9 years and is the principal architect of the KSADS-COMP application.

He is responsible for organization's strategy, technical direction, and operational oversight and is responsible for managing large and complex project engagements that require careful orchestration of processes, people, and tools. He is responsible for creating new program management standards, policy framework, cybersecurity, risk management, internal audit & compliance, change management and process efficiencies for project delivery. He successfully led the organization to receive GDPR and 21 CFR Part 11 compliance (under review).

Mr. Deep has a Masters in Computer Applications (MCA), a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from Madras Christian College, and a post graduate diploma in Software Engineering and Systems Management from the National Institute of Information Technology.

Contact Information:

alison.deep@ksads-comp.com

(281) 756-7703

Research Collaborators

Research on the KSADS-COMP was conducted in collaboration with

Lisa Townsend, PhD

Catherine Kearney, MA

Kennedy Krieger Institute

Boris Birmaher, MD

Mary Kay Gill, MSN

Raeanne Sylvester, MSW

Dawn Rice

Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Michael Milham, MD, PhD

Charissa Andreotti, PhD

Jasmine Escalera, PhD

Lindsay Alexander, MPH

Child Mind Institute

Our Consultants

Consultants who contributed to the development of the KSADS-COMP include:

Deanna M. Barch, PhD

Washington University in St. Louis

Marco Grados, MD

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Daniel Hoover, PhD

Kennedy Krieger Institute

Ellen Leibenluft, MD

National Institute of Mental Health

Danny Pine, MD

National Institute of Mental Health

Kenneth Sher, PhD

University of Missouri

Susan F. Tapert, PhD

University of California San Diego