Smart technology detects pain through facial expressions
Data4Growth improves care in residential care centers.
Dries Lorent
Data scientist
Many residents in residential care centers, such as people with dementia, are unable to express their pain effectively. The Leuven-based ICT company Sentigrate is tackling this issue through the Data4Growth project, in collaboration with Intelliprove. They are testing an app that measures heart rate, breathing, and stress to detect pain. The trial is taking place in the Booghuys and Ter Putkapelle residential care centers run by Zorg Leuven. The project is supported by the province of Flemish Brabant and the results are shared via Health House.
A bridge between care and technology
The healthcare sector is under pressure due to an aging population, staff shortages, and growing demand for care. Fortunately, technology offers solutions that both support patients and ease the workload of healthcare professionals.
Smart sensors and wearables are making it increasingly possible to monitor patients. In addition, video analysis, for example, helps detect pain scores, enabling caregivers to better assess residents’ pain and provide appropriate care.
A partnership between Sentigrate, Intelliprove, Health House, and Zorg Leuven, with the support of the province of Flemish Brabant, developed specific technology to address the needs of residents in a residential care center.
This project, called ‘Data4Growth’, made use of existing technology from Intelliprove, a Ghent-based start-up that develops digital applications for health monitoring.
“We are strongly committed to warm, people-oriented care. Technology should never replace that warmth, but it can reinforce it. Thanks to this project, our caregivers have extra support to pick up on the silent signs of pain—signs that residents themselves are sometimes no longer able to express. In this way, digital innovation and genuine attention to people go hand in hand,” says Bieke Verlinden, chair of Zorg Leuven.
The Booghuys and Ter Putkapelle residential care centers of Zorg Leuven therefore participated in the project as ‘living labs’. This means that the new technology was put into practice in these residential care centers. In this way, the technology can be further perfected and the insights gained can lead to improved care for the residents.
“Living labs are essential for bringing innovative technology companies into contact with healthcare institutions in an accessible way,” says Thomas De Moor, Co-Founder of Sentigrate.
Help with pain assessment when communication is difficult
Assessing pain was an important unmet healthcare need. Many residents in residential care centers suffer from pain. However, it is difficult to assess objectively and some residents, such as those with dementia, find it difficult or even impossible to express verbally.
An app uses the smartphone camera to measure blood flow in the face to determine heart rate, breathing, and stress levels. The technology is safe: it does not need to be inserted into the body and complies with all privacy regulations.
Making an invisible problem visible
What is innovative about this project is that the technology now analyzes micro-expressions in addition to facial blood flow to assess pain. IntelliProve, in collaboration with Sentigrate, developed the algorithms that enable pain score detection based on facial expressions. They also developed a data collection protocol to train this algorithm and make it practical for use.
“Technology in healthcare is crucial to making our care more efficient and targeted, and to freeing up more time for the relationship between caregiver and patient,” says Brecht Dhuyvetters, Co-Founder and CPO of Intelliprove.
The new insights will be widely shared in the healthcare sector through Health House’s extensive network.
“Flemish Brabant is brimming with knowledge and talent in the field of healthcare and technology,” says Ann Schevenels, Deputy for Slimme Regio. “This translates into many success stories, such as that of Data4Growth.”
