PainChek, the company behind the world’s first AI-powered pain assessment tool, has reported a 150% year-on-year increase in the number of beds in UK residential care homes using the PainChek technology, with 20,000 now contracted.
The company, which started out in Australia and is now the most popular clinical digital tool in Australian aged care, has conducted over 3,000,000 digital pain assessments worldwide, with 70,000 aged care beds now contracted worldwide, representing a 96% increase on the previous year.
PainChek is the world’s first regulatory cleared medical device for the assessment of pain, enabling best-practice pain management for people living with pain in any environment, from those who cannot reliably self-report their pain, to those who can, and for those whose ability to self-report their pain fluctuates.
Recent adopters of the PainChek technology in the UK include the London Borough of Enfield, which will be funding PainChek across 80 cares homes consisting of 1,900 beds, Exemplar Healthcare, TLC Care, Angel Care, and Royal Star & Garter.
PainChek is being trialled by several care providers including the UK’s largest care home provider, HC-One, across three homes in Wales as part of an evaluation of a potential broader rollout across Wales.
In addition, Shaw Healthcare, a residential care provider for aged care and younger adults, is trialling PainChek in two Welsh homes that support mental health. Welsh disability provider POBL is using government-funded licences to support an independent evaluation of PainChek within disability.
This year, PainChek partnered with Quality Compliance Systems (QCS) to support the 2023 review of a national pain management policy designed to help improve pain assessment and management in those who cannot reliably self-report their pain.
PainChek senior business development manager Tandeep Gill said: “Our latest figures reflect the value of the PainChek technology in UK care homes as well as worldwide.
“Reaching over three million pain assessments is a real milestone for us – each individual assessment brings more objectivity and consistency to evaluating and managing pain, whilst making a real difference to the lives of those suffering from pain.
“In the UK, we have been rapidly growing our network of clients and technology partners. To support rapid growth and increasing demand for PainChek, the UK team has built further capacity for customer education and training by partnering with Ark Assessment Limited.
“Through the partnership, pharmacists will deliver dementia education and pain management training using PainChek as part of their medication management service for aged care homes.”
Looking to expand to UK hospital network
Building on PainChek’s success and technology, work is now underway to launch a PainChek pilot within a large UK-based hospital network. The need for PainChek as a best-practice pain management solution also extends to older people living at home and with access to home care packages that enable long-term home living. PainChek is now expanding into home care by partnering with home care and disability service providers.
The PainChek app is available on smartphone and tablets and combines PainChek’s AI pain assessment tool, which intelligently automates the multidimensional pain assessment process, with the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS).
This hybrid functionality allows accurate, consistent pain assessment at the point of care, and for care to be considered in PainChek’s detailed reporting suite, PainChek Analytics.
PainChek has contracts with over 1,000 aged care facilities, with more than three million digital pain assessments conducted to date, and is trusted by thousands of nurses, carers and clinicians.