TECH

You do not need an ear doctor if you have this app

Researchers are developing a smartphone app that, with the help of a simple paper funnel, might help parents detect fluid buildup in a child's ear - one symptom of an ear infection.
The app is still experimental and would require clearance by the Food and Drug Administration before it could hit the market. But early data, published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, suggest that the smartphone can perform as well as an expensive test in a doctor's office.
While there are many thousands of health-related apps, this one stands out because it uses the phone's microphone and speaker to make its diagnosis.
"All you really need is to detect ear fluid," says Justin Chan, a graduate student at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle.
To focus this sound, physicians and parents crafted a small funnel out of paper. The tip of the funnel fits into the ear canal. The app then sends short, soft pulses of sound "kind of like a bird chirping" into the ear, Chan says.
The funnel picks up the echo of that sound and the app then analyzes it. If there is fluid behind the eardrum, the echoes will sound different from those in a healthy ear. An algorithm on the phone figures out.
Chan uses a wineglass as an analogy. "If a wineglass is empty or half full, tapping on it is going to produce a different sound," he says. "And that's exactly what we do with our tool."
Chan is lead author of a study that included other researchers, including his close collaborator Dr. Sharat Raju, from the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital and Research Institute.
About 50 children had their ears checked with the app. Some of those children then underwent previously planned surgery on their eardrums, and that doctors allowed to verify the results of the app. The scientists report that it was about 85 percent of the time, comparable to the technology currently used in otolaryngology clinics.
Chan and his colleagues started a company to develop the app as a commercial product. He says they are in the process of seeking the FDA's approval to market it. The agency would require more studies to gauge the app's performance and reliability, but it is hopeful that the group will gather those data by the end of the year.
"It's very promising, but it's too early to tell how accurate it is," says Dr. Kenny Chan, chief of pediatric otolaryngology at Children's Hospital Colorado. "We will wait and see." Source: Richard Harris-NPR