PainChek’s rapid international expansion continues with 95,000+ commercial beds contracted across almost 1,800 aged care facilities globally, 6,000,000+ PainChek® pain assessments completed, and significant further growth on the horizon for the coming months.
Global aged care snapshot
- 95,000+ contracted PainChek® licences across almost 1,800 aged care facilities in Australia, the UK, and North America
- 6,000,000+ cumulative PainChek® clinical assessments conducted to date, an increase of 103% over the previous year, reflecting continued strong growth in clinical use and implementation progress globally
PainChek is on track for US FDA clearance and further growth across North America
PainChek’s US-based FDA clinical study was successfully completed in June 2024 and the Clinical Investigation Report is now being finalised for submission to FDA. This study is required to achieve FDA De Novo clearance and lays the foundation for expansion into the 2,000,000 residential aged care beds across North America.
In the meantime, we continue to grow new clients in Canada and build new integration, sales, and marketing partnerships with North American aged care and hospital providers.
In 2022, PainChek integrated with PointClickCare (PCC) and that integration is being used across five Canadian aged care facilities. PCC is the leading cloud-based healthcare software provider for North America’s long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) and senior care industries. It has 50% of the 2,000,000 US long term beds under licence and 40,000 of the 220,000 long term care beds in Canada.
Significant growth in the UK
PainChek continues to grow strongly in the UK with ~36,000 licensed beds, representing 8% of the UK aged care sector and a 93% increase on the year prior.
Some of PainChek’s larger UK clients include:
- NHS Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB – 2,500 beds across 60 homes
- Exemplar Healthcare – 1,800 beds across 40 homes
- We Care Group – 1,400 beds across 28 homes
- Dovehaven Care Homes – 1,300 beds across 24 homes
- Orchard Care Homes – 1,300 beds across 23 homes
- Greensleeves Trust – 1,300 beds across some 28 homes
The evidence of improved outcomes produced by existing clients and the endorsement of PainChek® by the Care Inspectorate, Scotland’s regulator, has led to further expansion across Scotland. In addition, Care UK has commenced the rollout of PainChek® across its Scottish estate, and Dumfries and Galloway NHS Trust are funding PainChek across several services.
A successful pilot in Abbey Healthcare’s Scottish Home has resulted in a rollout across Abbey Healthcare’s 16 homes, totalling 1,095 beds.
The Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes’ Integrated Care System (BLMK ICS) received funding for a further 1,000 PainChek® licences, now totalling 2,500. Funding is from the government sponsored Adult Social Care Technology Fund (ASCTF).
The University of Hertfordshire and Health Innovation East will independently evaluate the benefits of using PainChek®. If PainChek® proves successful during the 15-month period of its adoption across BLMK ICS, the DHSC could support a national rollout of PainChek® across England.
Nourish Care, a leading provider of care management software in the UK, is now offering PainChek® to its customer base. Nourish Care supports over 320,000 people receiving care across multiple care settings including residential, disability, and home care.
Ongoing progress across ANZ
In Australia and New Zealand, PainChek® licences cover ~59,000 beds across ~750 aged care facilities, representing approximately 30% of the sector.
Over half of the ~59,000 licences are contracted by clients with more than 1,000 beds including:
- Bolton Clarke – 8,000+ beds across 85 homes
- Uniting Care Queensland – 3,750 beds across 46 homes
- BlueCross – 2,800 beds across 32 homes
- Baptist Care NSW/ACT – 2,000+ beds across 20 homes
- Ozcare – 2,000+ beds across 17 homes
- Anglicare NSW – 2,000+ beds across 21 homes
- Frank Whiddon Group – 1,750 beds across 17 homes
PainChek® Infant for Parents has launched
Following the widespread adoption of the clinically validated PainChek® technology, PainChek® Infant for Parents is a user-friendly software designed for home use. It helps manage existing conditions that are not serious, making it easier for parents and caregivers to take control of their infant’s health in a comfortable setting.
The PainChek® Infant Early Access Program has now launched, giving first-time parents and primary caregivers of babies aged 1-12 months pre-access to the world’s first AI-enabled app for instant pain assessment.
The launch follows a successful round of market and consumer research, consumer feedback, and product testing conducted in late 2023. Following this research, several enhancements were made to the PainChek® Infant app, making it easier to use than ever and providing a range of other useful features, including:
- Monitoring historical pain events
- Documenting treatments, including medications
- Self-guided in-app training
- User-friendliness in a non-clinical environment, such as at home
PainChek® Infant’s AI uses camera technology to scan and analyse infant facial features that are indicative of pain. The following graphic provides an overview of the combined capability:
The Early Access Program will provide further invaluable user parental feedback and insights, alongside an opportunity for PainChek to engage with industry partners and clinicians before PainChek® Infant’s full launch in Australia this year and overseas in 2025. Learn more and register for the Early Access Program here.
Other business updates
Global integration partners
PainChek® integrates and works with aged care management and medication management systems covering more than 180,000 aged care beds in Australia, 25,000 beds in New Zealand, 195,000 beds in the UK & Ireland, and 1,000,000 beds in North America.
Product development
Recent PainChek® enhancements include:
- Release of a User Data Export feature, enabling clients to audit and report user access to personal health information, sites each user has access to, and the last login time.
- Cloud-based infrastructure security and developer efficiency have improved with the migration of services to remove the need to manage underlying server infrastructure.
- Security enhancements implemented include scheduled database backup deletions, database backup encryption, and the addition of security headers to the PainChek web application. Vulnerabilities in third-party packages have been addressed and overall system robustness improved.
Clinical research
Two Hollywood Private Hospital (WA) based research projects are underway:
- “Improving pain assessment for hospitalized older adults following orthopaedic surgery using a technology-driven pain assessment: An effectiveness-implementation pilot study.” A manuscript covering the effectiveness of the PainChek training has now been submitted to the International Journal of Medical Informatics.
- “An effectiveness-implementation pilot study to improve pain assessment for hospitalized older adults with cognitive impairment using a technology-driven pain assessment tool” – under a grant from the Nurses Memorial Charitable Trust.
Additional clinical studies and research being progressed include:
- Implementation study to evaluate the feasibility of using PainChek® in the emergency department. The study is conducted at Sir Charles Gairdner and Fiona Stanley Hospitals in Western Australia.
- Implementation study of PainChek® within a Geriatric/Rehabilitation Ward, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore pending a successful grant application.
- Evaluation of the validity of PainChek® Infant for the assessment of pain in neonates undergoing frenectomy. Ethics approval for the project has been received.
- PainChek is also conducting a “Pain Profiling” research initiative to expand current PainChek® indications for use.
Recent PainChek-related publications
- Haggan M. An age old problem. AJP: The Australian Journal of Pharmacy. 2024 Apr:36-40.
- Miller EL, Okour A. Pain Management Among the Cognitively Impaired. Pain Management Nursing. 2024 Apr 1;25(2):101-3.
- Pu L, Coppieters MW, Smalbrugge M, Jones C, Byrnes J, Todorovic M, Moyle W. Associations between facial expressions and observational pain in residents with dementia and chronic pain. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2024 Feb 9.
- Fernandes S, von Gunten A, Verloo H. Using AI-Based Technologies to Help Nurses Detect Behavioral Disorders: Narrative Literature Review. JMIR Nursing 2024;7:e54496
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.
