Emory medical student Kathryn Rappaport uses the Remotoscope on Aaron Lam, 8. PHOTO COURTESY GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Well, no. But a new device in the works could eliminate millions of doctors’ visits every year for parents whose kids are fussing and tugging at their ears.

Around 75% of children have had at least one middle ear infection (also called otitis media) by the time they are 6 years old, and this leads to 15 million doctor visits a year in the U.S. During these visits, pediatricians peer into kids’ ears with a device called an otoscope, looking to see whether an infection is present.

Here’s where things get complicated. If there are signs of infection, doctors are forced to guess whether it is caused by a virus or by bacteria so that they know whether to prescribe antibiotics. Bacterial infections won’t clear up without them, but for viral infections they are completely unnecessary.

Lab tests that could let doctors know for sure what they’re dealing with take too much time and money to be worthwhile in most cases, leaving doctors with three choices.

1. Withhold antibiotics and risk letting a bacterial infection go unchecked, which can lead to complications;

2. Send the child away with no prescription, but have them come back after a few days to see whether the infection is clearing on its own, a practice doctors call “watchful waiting” (you can guess how many parents are excited about that option); or

3. (What happens most often) prescribe antibiotics even though they might not be needed, which experts say has led to the development of bugs that are impervious to the drugs.

The Remotoscope, being developed by researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University, is a clip-on attachment and software app that turns an iPhone into an otoscope parents can use at home. The parent uses Remotoscope – employing the phone’s camera and flash – to take a picture or video of their child’s eardrum, and the app magnifies and transmits the images to a doctor’s office. This means “watchful waiting” can happen at home, and if a prescription is needed the doctor can phone it in to the pharmacy without seeing the child again.

The device is in clinical trials now (partially funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) to see whether the images it produces will let doctors make accurate diagnoses. The results of that trial should be published by year’s end, and then further trials will be conducted to see if the remote “watchful waiting” idea works. Plans are underway to market Remotoscope to parents once the device has FDA approval.

Until it does, watchful waiting is your best option.

Here’s a fun way to sneak a little body awareness into your kids’ brains without it feeling like homework. Created by Heather Manley, N.D., a naturopathic doctor and mom of two, this series of activity books and audio CDs features Human Body Detectives Merrin and Pearl, two young girls who magically shrink and take their tiny selves on adventures inside the bodies of family and friends.

I checked out the third installment in the series, A Heart Pumping Adventure. The CD features an engagingly told tale complete with fun sound-effects (like the sound of the pumping heart) and lots of facts about the circulatory system. Concerned about their dad’s unhealthy eating habits, Merrin and Pearl enter his body and float along on a red blood cell they nickname “Squishy,” getting a good view of some yellow goo threatening to clog his arteries, and having a vocabulary-building conversation about heart-healthy food and habits along the way. 

After listening to each CD, kids can reinforce what they’ve learned with a companion HBD activity book. Yes, it has the obligatory crossword puzzle, stickers, word finds and picture puzzles, but it also encourages kids to write down what they “know, learned and want to know” about the body system in question.

I especially liked interactive elements, for instance, teaching kids to take their pulse and encouraging them to email Merrin and Pearl if they notice a difference in their heart rate after exercise. Another section offers up vocabulary words about the circulatory system and the beginning of a tale for kids to finish. Merrin and Pearl then ask kids to send in their stories.

Other adventures in the series explore the digestive system (and an escape from a poopy diaper!) and the immune system, where the girls befriend a white blood cell. The idea is that if children understand how their bodies work, they are more likely to make healthy choices and lead healthy lives. I think this series will inspire ages 6 to 10 in that direction.

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