“Pain is varied and difficult to convey to the doctor,” Dr. Fryer says. “We currently use the 0-10 numeric rating scale and rely on the patient to come up with an average”.
Even though the static ruler approach, also called the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), has been well studied, Jerome believes there is more data that can be extracted during the clinical encounter. Allowing a patient to share their pain experience with a squeezable handheld device provides more information to the doctor about tissue tenderness during a physical assessment, in a measured way. This re-assures the patient they are being listened to and it also helps the doctor be more accurate. He also sees this being useful in the dental market as well as many others.
He knows there is much science to do on the Pain Meter but he believes this could really change the way we measure and manage pain for people.
To move this project along, he is looking for patient-centered practitioners to help move the dial to a pledged goal to initiate the first production run from the factory. And for those in pain that would like their doctors to buy one, there is a “donate to the cause”.
To learn more, visit https://mypain.co
