You use your phone to talk, text, play games, but could it tell you if your child is sick?
14-month-old Harper Barrett has an ear infection. "She just got her second one," Megan Barrett, Harper's mother, told Ivanhoe.
It's one of the most common reasons kids see their pediatricians. But Barrett says it's hard to know when an earache merits a trip to the doctor.
"If you take her, and she doesn't have an ear infection, then it's a waste of time and money," Megan Barrett said.
A new product may be the answer parents like Megan have been waiting for; an iPhone otoscope.
The instrument slides right onto the phone. It contains fiber optic cables that connect with the phone's light, along with a small magnifying glass. To use it, open the app, push a button, put it up to the ear and record a video clip.
The idea is parents take pictures and video at home, and then send it to their doctor, who will tell them if they need to come in. In a clinical trial, researchers found images captured with the iPhone are at least as good as those captured with the standard instrument.
"We are looking to see if the images we can get from this device are of diagnostic quality," Kathryn Rappaport, Medical Student at the Emory University School of Medicine told Ivanhoe.
Pediatrician Andi Shane, Assistant Professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, says the new technology is more advanced.
"The only thing that, a conventional otoscope, is providing is a light source," Pediatrician Andi Shane, told Ivanhoe. She says the device could save time, money and maybe even reduce the use of antibiotics.
Megan would love to give it a try, "just to be able to check it out myself, and be able to send it to the doctor, it would be amazing," she was quoted as saying.
Researchers finished the initial clinical trial in February and are currently working on publishing the results. The company that makes the device is planning to launch it this coming fall. It will likely cost between $99 and $199.
