WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Researchers at the Wake Forest University of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have been given a $3.2 million grant to develop computer-based approaches to ear disease diagnosis.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ear infections are the most common infection among kids under the age of 2. An estimated 8 million needless antibiotics are prescribed each year, leading to a rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
For that reason, young children who experience frequent ear infections are referred to an ear, nose, and throat specialist for surgical placement of ear tubes, which in most cases is not needed.
With the more than $3 million grant from the National Institute of Health, researchers from both universities will create machine-learning applications that will help with the diagnosis of ear pathology.
Director of Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Center for Biomedical Informatics and professor of internal medicine at the medical school, Metin Gurcan, says the project will have an innovative clinical impact.
“The long-term goal of this project is to use computer-assisted approaches to improve the diagnostic accuracy of ear disease,” Gurcan said. “This project is highly innovative, both in terms of its clinical impact to shift the field toward a more objective approach to ear diagnosis as well as the scientific innovations of applying machine learning techniques to ear disease.”
Researchers will look at short videos of eardrums using a digital otoscope and combine that with tympanometry, an acoustic test for the workings of the middle ear. The new imaging technology will help medical professionals better diagnose ear diseases.
Patients will be enrolled at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
(WATCH BELOW: NC MedAssist hosting free medicine giveaway event in west Charlotte Saturday)
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