Ear infections are the most common among preschool aged children, though can be difficult to distinguish between one caused by bacteria, and thus requiring antibiotics, and a case caused by a virus which will ultimately resolve without such treatment.
Dr. Wilbur Lam, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, is working with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, to develop a “Remotoscope”, an iPhone attachment and accompanying app that works as an otoscope. Using a phone equipped with the Remotoscope, a parent could snap images of the child’s inner ear over the course of the illness to aid physicians in diagnosing the cause of an infection, as well as use the images to determine whether or not to seek medical attention.
For more information about the device, please visit: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/09/remotoscope_for_ear_infections/campus.html.