Objective Method for Pain Detection/Diagnosis

Pain is subjective and inherently difficult to quantify, yet appropriate pain management is predicated on adequate assessment. Whenever possible, pain is measured by the patient"s self-report. Patients who cannot reliably self-report are at significantly higher risk for inadequately managed pain. Therefore, there is a need for objective pain monitoring for noncommunicative patients. BioSensics LLC, in partnership with the University of Arizona, will develop a Multimodal Objective Pain Assessment Sensor System (MoPASS) consisting of two light, comfortable, wireless, wearable sensors (on the fingers and forehead) to monitor multiple indicators of pain and provide a single pain intensity score. This pain score will be based on proven pain correlates including behavioral parameters (restlessness and facial expression) and physiological parameters (electrocortical activity, heart-rate, skin conductance, and skin temperature). This system has broad applications ranging from rapid assessment in field-clinics to long-term monitoring of chronically noncommunicative patients. In Phase I we will develop the sensor system and perform a clinical feasibility study. In Phase II we will perform a comprehensive clinical study to examine the sensitivity and specificity of MoPASS. The results of this study will be used to pare down our system to the fewest possible sensing modalities for commercialization in Phase III.