PainChek is pleased to announce that the research collaboration agreement for the development of its innovative pain assessment tool for non-verbal children with disabilities has now been signed.
The research project, known as ‘Detecting pain in kids who can’t tell you it hurts: PainChek for children with disabilities’, is led by Professor Jenny Downs, Head of the Development and Disability Program and Lead of the Child Disability team at The Kids Research Institute Australia (The Kids) and Dr Katherine Langdon, Perth Children’s Hospital consultant in paediatric rehabilitation medicine.
The project is a collaboration between PainChek, The Kids and Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH), which is part of the Child and Adolescent Health Service, and builds on PainChek’s existing technology, which has successfully been implemented in aged care facilities globally to assist in the detection of pain among people living with dementia.
The project responds to an unmet need for a pain assessment tool designed and developed specifically for children with disabilities and was made possible by a $392,820 grant from the Western Australian Government’s Future Health Research and Innovation Fund.
The new app is being designed to evaluate pain through detailed facial analysis and behavioural cues, with the potential to offer quick and reliable insights that assist caregivers and medical staff in making informed decisions about a child’s care. The Kids and PCH will collect these data sets and work with parents of children with disabilities on the overall design. PainChek will develop the app, drawing on its technical capability and experience in pain assessment. The project is expected to be finished and ready for commercialisation in about two years.
PainChek holds exclusive rights to commercialise the new app, positioning the company to lead the global market in advanced technology-driven pain assessment solutions. The project’s success could potentially see PainChek’s technology utilised beyond acute healthcare settings, aiding parents in managing their child’s pain at home.
PainChek’s Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Jeff Hughes, emphasised the importance of this advancement:
“Pain amongst children living with a disability is common and can have a significant impact on their quality of life. For those caring for these children, knowing when they are in pain can be challenging. This tool aims to deliver rapid and accurate assessments, leading to better pain management.”
Professor Jenny Downs commented:
“We know that children with disabilities experience many more hospitalisations and procedures than children in the general population, and they are more vulnerable because of their communication difficulties. This funding will enable us to develop an app to guide their clinical care and enable the best pain management.”
To learn more about how PainChek® could enable best-practice pain management within your organisation, book a one-on-one session with a member of our team.
