Key Points:
- Efforts to combat the large global burden of ear and hearing disorders
are hampered by poor availability of expert diagnosis
- We report the first study to directly compare prediction model,
non-expert and tele-diagnosis of middle and external ear disorders.
- A prediction model based upon a novel automated otological symptom
questionnaire performed poorly, but absence of otorrhoea was found to
reliably exclude a diagnosis of chronic suppurative otitis media.
- Both on-site non-expert and expert tele-diagnosis had high diagnostic
specificity, but low sensitivity.
- Future work could explore how the validity of these diagnostic methods
may be improved.