Air date: March 27, 2011

Host: David Crabb, MD

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Interview: Alejandro Hoberman, MD, chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

Doctors call them "acute otitis media." Parents call them earaches.

Either way, ear infections are the most commonly diagnosed illness in children and the most common reason pediatricians prescribe antibiotics for kids.

Some have raised concerns that antibiotics are being over-prescribed for children, a topic our next guest has been studying. Alejandro Hoberman, MD, is chief of Academic Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

After a long-term study of kids with ear infections, Dr. Hoberman concluded that antibiotics are not over-prescribed.
He chats with Sound Medicine’s Dr. David Crabb about his research and about the best way to treat ear infections.

Dr. Hoberman is chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He was lead author of a study of using antibiotics to treat ear infections.

Additional Resources:

• Read more about Dr. Hoberman's study concluding that antibiotics are the best treatment for kids' ear infections.