Welcome to Kirsty Meets!
Each month I meet key stakeholders and business leaders in the social care sector. This month I met Tandeep Gill, Head of Business Development UK&I, PainChek. I caught up with Tandeep to discuss pain assessment, technology and innovation.
So Tandeep, can you tell me us a little more about PainChek and the technology’s mission?
Our mission is to give a voice to those who cannot reliably verbalise their pain. It is a daily challenge for carers and healthcare professionals to assess pain in people living with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other cognitive impairments. These conditions can affect people’s ability to reliably self-report their pain or mean that their ability to self-report fluctuates.
PainChek® was developed as a non-subjective, effective, and novel solution to the pain assessment problem. By combining automated facial-analysis technology and smart automation, the technology enables carers to identify the presence of pain when pain isn’t obvious, quantify the pain severity, and monitor the impact of interventions to optimise and evidence the overall quality of care.
What are some weaknesses of paper-based pain assessment tools?
Although manual or paper-based tools for pain assessment are widely available, they are often underutilised due to the subjective nature of assessing pain for those who are not able to self-report, as well as being time-consuming and cumbersome. Many manual pain assessment tools ask the assessor to rate the severity of certain indicators of pain, such as vocalisations and behavioural changes. This results, in many cases, in care teams relying on their opinion or previous knowledge of a resident to gauge what level of pain they appear to be in – an approach that is subject to human error, as different individuals may have varying assessment outcomes.
How is the digitisation of care – particularly pain assessment – benefitting care home residents and staff?
PainChek® is paving the way for a future where every resident and patient has access to effective pain management, which is widely acknowledged as a human right.
Technology can lift many administrative burdens from care staff, in turn driving efficiencies and productivity, improving job satisfaction, and giving carers back the time to interact with residents.
Carers can use PainChek® to record meaningful pain data, allowing them to address the shortfalls in pain documentation and treat pain according to evidence-based pain management practices, as well as plan person-centered, long-term care.
“Technology can lift many administrative burdens from care staff, in turn driving efficiencies and productivity, improving job satisfaction, and giving carers back the time to interact with residents”
Could you describe PainChek’s pilot project with Scotland’s Care Inspectorate?
We are pleased to be working with the Scottish Care Inspectorate on a pilot project to implement PainChek® across 15 services in Scotland and monitor how well the technology is being used. As part of this, the Care Inspectorate will conduct an independent evaluation of PainChek®, assessing falls, distress behaviours, dependency, and changes in medication across dementia and learning disability services.
In the initial pilot phase, PainChek® was trialled in a small number of Scottish care homes and was linked to a 42% reduction in falls amongst residents after six months. It has also been associated with an increase in the number of pain assessments completed, more appropriate use of pain medication, and a general reduction in the prescribed rate of pain medication.
And finally Tandeep, where can we find out a little more about PainChek?
To find out more about PainChek®, visit: https://painchek.com