ePat Technologies bags first sale with residential aged care operator for facial pain recognition software

Less than a month after the launch, ePat Technologies (ASX: EPT) has bagged its first residential aged care sale for its PainChek application with a South Australia operator.

ePat Technologies claims this commercial milestone “validates” the PainChek technology.

The technology works by capturing a brief video of an individual using a smartphone or tablet camera.

Facial recognition software analyses the video in real-time to pick up on facial micro-expressions that indicate pain.

The data is combined with other pain indicators such as behaviour, vocalisation and movement to calculate a severity score.

Appropriate pain relief can then be administered and monitored for effectiveness.

According to ePat Technologies, the technology is efficient and easy to use and once the aged care market has been secured, the company will target the massive global market of infants and children who haven’t learned to speak.

Back in September, ePat Technologies secured a commercial agreement worth A$40,000 per annum with Dementia Support Australia. Under the agreement, the government-backed organisation’s 150 consultants have access to the technology when visiting patients across Australia who suffer from behavioural and psychological symptoms.

This residential aged care sale resulted from a Dementia Support Australia consultant using PainChek to assess one of the facility’s residents.

Following the consultant’s visit, the aged care operator contacted ePat to purchase a PainChek licence for assessing all of its dementia patients on the ward.

“This sale confirms the value proposition of PainChek in the residential aged care market. The value of the Dementia Support Australia relationship as a cost-effective channel to market, and our business model,” ePat chief executive officer Philip Daffas said.

Dementia Support Australia’s consultants carry out about 5,000 patient assessments a year, which ePat Technologies anticipates will facilitate further PainChek sales.

“We now have a strong pipeline of leads across large, medium and small residential aged care providers that we are working to convert into new commercial sales,” Daffas said.