A pain response monitoring index designed specifically for noncommunicating dementia patients has earned Medasense Biometrics an innovation grant to further its use.
The grant from the Israel Innovation Authority for NOL, the Nociception Level Index, will support a pilot in conjunction with the Dorot Rehabilitation and Geriatric Medical Center in Netanya, Israel.
Caregivers have long assessed pain in dementia patients using subjective indicators, such as agitation, facial expression, moaning or altered respiration. But those indicators are not specific enough to interpret pain levels or identify ideal treatments.
Medasense’s NOL technology uses a noninvasive sensing platform and an artificial intelligence algorithm to objectively monitor and quantify the individual patient’s pain response. The company’s flagship product — the PMD-200 — is a known solution in operating rooms, where it helps surgical teams manage pain medication during surgery, when the patient is under anesthesia.
“We are excited to be part of this pilot project with Medasense,” said Ady Sasson, M.D., deputy director of Dorot. “As one of the largest geriatric centers in Israel, the objective and specific pain response monitoring that Medasense’s NOL scale enables will allow us to significantly improve quality of care for our patients every day. We want to make sure that we are providing our patients with individually tailored pain control: we don’t want to be giving pain medication when it may not be necessary and we don’t want to be undertreating pain. Until now, we haven’t had the tools to be able to know.”
