PainChek expands UK presence with first orders of pain assessment technology

Australian medical device company PainChek (ASX: PCK) is expanding its presence in the UK market, making its first direct sale and confirming first orders for the region.

PainChek has developed a smartphone-based medical device using artificial intelligence to assess and score pain levels in real time and update medical records in the cloud. The platform works by recording a short video of the person’s face, analysing the images that indicate pain and recording them.

The technology can be used by caregivers to monitor the effect of medication and treatment on patients over time.

In an update to the market today, the healthcare innovator confirmed it has received an initial supply order for 1,000 PainChek annual bed licences from Person Centred Software UK (PCS UK), which has been trialling the platform in aged care.

PCS UK director and founder Jonathan Papworth said there are more than 55,000 resident beds under PCS licences in the UK across more than 1,500 aged care and nursing homes.

“We have received very positive feedback on the PainChek system from our trial sites and our sales teams are actively marketing the combined PCS and PainChek package to our existing and new client base,” he said.

“The benefit is better care for residents combined with greater operating efficiencies for the home –which gives carers more time to provide care,” Mr Papworth added.

In addition, PainChek announced it has made its first direct sale to a 30-bed dementia-specific aged care centre in the UK.

PainChek UK business development director Pete Shergill said the unnamed client had a “full understanding of the need and the clinical benefit and placed the order immediately.”

“Furthermore, the engagement is so high with his staff that they wish to showcase the solution in use,” he added.

UK’s aged care market

PainChek said its collaboration with PCS provides immediate access to 1,500 aged care homes but more crucially, “a significantly higher proportion of those that have adopted care planning technology”.

According to the company, the UK has 540,000 residential aged care beds across 18,000 homes with about 82% of these being privately owned, 15% run by voluntary organisation and 3% by local councils.

About 40% of residential aged care is self-funded while approximately 49% receive council funding and 10% is funded by the National Health Service.

PainChek cited a report by the London School of Economics that said the prevalence of dementia is set to rise from 885,000 people in 2019 to 1.59 million in 2040. In addition, costs are expected to rise more than 170% over the same period from £35 billion (A$66.21 billion) to £94 billion (A$177.83 billion).

Other collaborations

PainChek also announced it has teamed up with an Outstanding Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated dementia-focused care home based in Manchester, UK as part of its ‘direct selling to aged care’ program. The CQC rating is the highest rating an aged care facility can achieve in the UK.

Under this deal, the home has agreed to host other aged care visitors on a monthly basis to demonstrate the benefits the PainChek pain assessment tool can bring to the adult social care market.

In October, PainChek revealed plans to roll-out its pain assessment technology in the Australian residential aged care market through a collaboration with Ward Medication Management.

The company also recently signed a deal with Singapore’s leading aged care provider Allium Healthcare Holdings.