AI-powered app PainChek helps assess pain for people with dementia

Australian smartphone app assesses pain for people with dementia using AI

The app PainCheck employs Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help assess pain in people with communication difficulties like dementia.

PainCheck along with its pain rating scale allows caregivers to manage and monitor patients pain levels who struggle to vocalise their pain.

The smartphone app allows a caregiver to record a quick video of the patient’s face and then uses AI to analyse the images that could indicate pain. The app can also calculate an all-encompassing pain score which helps caregivers monitor the effectiveness of treatment over time.

PainChek has recently received  CE Mark and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) clearance. Following the approval, the app will become available in Australia and the UK as from April 2021, before expanding into mainland Europe and other overseas markets.

CEO Philip Daffas shared his thoughts in a statement:

PainChek can become a single, simple and rapid point-of-care solution for healthcare professionals in assessing and documenting pain across all their patients, in a broad range of settings including the larger home care and hospital care markets,

Based on initial market feedback, we expect this novel solution will be well received by our existing users and attract a wider global audience.

According to PainChek, the app can detect pain with over 90% accuracy. So far, over 66,000 people globally have completed more than 180,000 pain assessments.

Currently, PainChek is only available for adults with communication issues, however the company expressed desire to offer the product to children who have not learned to speak yet.

Source: CNN Business