New AI Smartphone App Accurately Diagnoses Ear Infections and Prevents Unnecessary Antibiotic Use

(Left) a normal eardrum next to (right) an infected one – credit University of Pittsburgh, released.An AI-powered application developed by physician-scientists at the University of Pittsburgh in the US could decrease unnecessary antibiotic use in children by diagnosing ear infections via smartphone.The only thing worse than your child getting an ear infection is wrongly believing they have one and administering a redundant course of antibiotics which obliterates their developing gut microbiome.Around 70% of children develop an ear infection before the age of one, the most common of which is acute otitis media (AOM).However, AOM is often confused with other issues such as fluid behind the ear, which can lead to infections being incorrectly diagnosed and incorrectly treated.The study’s senior author Dr. Alejandro Hoberman, a professor of pediatrics, explained that an underdiagnosis of AOM results in inadequate care, while overdiagnosis results in unnecessary antibiotic treatment, which can compromise the effectiveness of currently available antibiotics.To develop the new AI tool, Dr. Hoberman and his research team built and annotated a training library of 1,151 videos of the tympanic membrane, also known as the eardrum, from 635 children who visited outpatient pediatric offices at the University of Pittsburgh’s Medical Center between...

Read More........→December 16, 2024

World's oldest known wild bird is expecting again, aged 74

LOS ANGELES - Parenting can be tough, even for the young and energetic, but one elderly albatross is about to go through it all again -- at the ripe old (and apparently record-setting) age of 74.Wisdom, a Laysan Albatross, is one of millions of the huge seabirds that return to Midway Atoll, near Hawaii, every year to nest.Wildlife experts say for decades she was doing this with the same partner -- the birds are known to be monogamous -- and has laid over 50 eggs in her lifetime.But her partner has not been seen for years, and Wisdom has recently begun to flirt with other males.On this year's visit, she has produced an egg that her new partner is helping her to incubate."We are optimistic that the egg will hatch," said Jonathan Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.Photographs and video provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service show the proud parents-to-be apparently chattering to their egg before the male sits on it.Wisdom was identified and tagged when she laid her first egg at the refuge in 1956, when she would have been at least five years old -- the point Laysan Albatrosses reach sexual maturity.That means by the end of the month, Wisdom will be at least 74 years old, and could be several years beyond that, making her the oldest known wild bird in the world.Laysan Albatrosses can...

Read More........→December 13, 2024