We will be exhibiting the initial results of our tele-medical BPPV consult study as a poster for the Triological Society session at the Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings for 2017.Discussion posted below for ease of reading:

Within our small sample size, a number of patients who were referred for an evaluation of their dizziness had initially undergone a CT or MRI in the emergency department to evaluate their complaint of dizziness.

Our initial proof of concept study found that for a small sample size, remote diagnosis of BPPV via telemedical consults is possible with high specificity. Based on the specificity, it is appears unlikely that a trained otologist or neurologist reviewing videos of ocular findings of a DHT would misdiagnose a more concerning cause of dizziness as BPPV. Thus, this could easily serve as a screening tool to quickly triage dizzy patients into those requiring more costly work-up and those who do not.

While other authors have suggested using video-oculography [3] or educational algorithms [4] to help distinguish benign versus concerning causes of dizziness, the barriers to adoption of these methods are the cost of equipment and ER workflow. However, due to the prevalence of HIPAA-compliant texting applications and the ubiquity of smartphones, adoption of smartphone-based video consults into an ER workflow is feasible. This is supported by a recent survey of worldwide ER physicians, which found that many wanted assistance with evaluating and distinguishing causes of dizziness [5]. While academic centers may have neurologists or otolarygologists on call, rural and community centers could gain access to these specialists through telemedical means.

Since the DHT is easily taught, having an otolaryngologist interpret the resulting eye movements remotely may increase usage of the test and may lead to cost savings.