PhotoniCare

Ear infections are the most common reason children visit a clinician, receive antibiotics, and undergo surgery in the United States, accounting for more than 25 million visits annually. Despite that volume, the standard otoscope, a tool largely unchanged for over 100 years, can only show the surface of the eardrum. What is happening behind it, where the fluid is and what type it is, remains invisible. That gap between what clinicians can see and what they need to know drives misdiagnosis, unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, return visits, and tympanostomy tube surgeries.
PhotoniCare is a medical device company built to close that gap. Based in Research Triangle Park, NC, PhotoniCare translates light-based imaging technology into point-of-care diagnostic tools for frontline providers. Our product, OtoSight Middle Ear Scope, is an FDA-cleared device that adds optical coherence tomography (OCT) to a familiar otoscope form factor, giving clinicians an objective view of the middle ear space at the point of care.
OtoSight sees behind the eardrum. Using OCT, a non-invasive, light-based imaging technology, OtoSight generates a real-time, depth-resolved view of the middle ear space. Clinicians can visualize the presence and turbidity of middle ear fluid behind the tympanic membrane without an ear canal seal, without discomfort, and without removing earwax first. In a published study using the commercial OtoSight device, OCT provided a readable middle ear assessment in 84.6% of cases with significant cerumen obstruction, compared to 46.2% for standard otoscopy (Porter et al., Translational Biophotonics, 2022).
OtoSight adds objective data to every ear exam. Where a standard otoscope leaves the diagnosis to inference, OtoSight provides visual, objective information about middle ear fluid that supports a more accurate diagnosis on the first visit. A blinded reader accuracy study found that clinicians detected middle ear fluid with 90.6% accuracy, 90.9% sensitivity, and 90.2% specificity using OCT imaging. Performance held across all reader groups regardless of prior OCT experience, and readers reached that level of accuracy after fewer than 10 minutes of training (Preciado et al., Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 2020).
OtoSight supports antibiotic stewardship. The OTO-MATIC study, a pragmatic, multicenter, cluster-randomized controlled trial published in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology (2025), found that clinicians using OtoSight had 50% lower odds of prescribing antibiotics compared to those using a standard otoscope (OR=0.50, 95% CI: 0.45-0.56, p<0.001), after controlling for site, fluid presence, patient demographics, and other treatments. Providers in the OCT group were also significantly more likely to make a single treatment decision rather than layering multiple concurrent therapies (91.6% vs. 73.8%, p<0.001), reflecting increased diagnostic confidence.
OtoSight adds a billable procedure to your practice. OtoSight exams are billed under CPT codes 0485T and 0486T, creating a new billable procedure at the point of care alongside the clinical benefit of improved diagnostic accuracy. Reimbursement pathways and payer coverage continue to expand.
Any trained provider can perform and read the exam. The device is designed to fit naturally into existing workflows across primary care, pediatrics, urgent care, and ENT settings. The exam takes seconds, requires no seal of the ear canal, and is non-invasive for the patient.