InterSystems partners with PainChek on pain assessment – Med-Tech Innovation
Representation of a digitally-based partnership
Under the agreement, PainChek is using InterSystems IRIS for Health to integrate its application with electronic medical record (EMR) systems – including the InterSystems TrakCare unified healthcare information system. More than one billion health records worldwide are managed using InterSystems technology. Combining the companies’ platforms will facilitate PainChek’s hospital global market entry and help transform pain management in the hospital sector and, in the future, new markets like home care that would also benefit from accurate and reliable pain assessment.
PainChek’s software-as-a-service (SaaS), artificial intelligence (AI) platform uses smart devices with cameras to accurately evaluate patients’ pain levels. PainChek’s reliability and consistency improves care and saves time and money for healthcare providers. For example, clinicians with different bedside manners may record different verbal assessments. Many patients cannot or do not reliably describe their pain levels, are pre- or non-verbal, or are not lucid at the time.
PainChek’s application is contracted for use in more than 1300 aged care facilities in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Singapore where over 50% of residents are diagnosed with dementia. Among pain management improvements to increase the quality of care for residents, an 18-month case study showed a 20% reduction in the use of benzodiazepines and antipsychotic medications.
In PainChek’s first move into hospitals, the agreement sees InterSystems offer the application to its global customer base.
Philip Daffas, CEO, PainChek, said: “Partnering with a global leader like InterSystems accelerates our entry into new markets like the hospital sector. We know from experience in aged care how important it is to connect to EMR systems. InterSystems IRIS for Health makes that easy and scales up our capacity to connect into hospitals and, in the future, other sectors like home care that would also benefit from easy to use and reliable pain assessment.”
Luciano Brustia, regional managing director, Asia Pacific for InterSystems, added: “PainChek’s adoption in the aged care sector – with around 60% of Australian facilities contracted to use its smartphone application and more then 1.7 million pain assessments carried out to date – has been remarkable. It demonstrates the benefits of accurate, reliable, and consistent pain assessment. Through our partnership, we look forward to accelerating PainChek’s entry into new markets and enabling these benefits for healthcare providers worldwide.”