Pain mapping software helps patients describe pain to doctors with 3-D graphics

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(NaturalNews) New 3-D mapping software has been developed by team at Brunel University in England to assist wheelchair users in logging pain during the course of a day.

Currently, the majority of communications between a patient and doctor about pain is centered around a standardized pain scale -- which the patient subjectively describes on a scale of one to 10 -- and is done in the doctor's office, the patient having to recall when and where they experienced pain since their last visit.

The new program can be run on a standard personal computer, using an at-home PDA to graphically describe pain levels and locations. That information is then uploaded to the doctor's computer when the visit occurs. This kind of electronic record lets doctors and their offices collect and collate information on how pain changes within a patient and the types of pain a patient has.

The new software and PDA system has been tested by about 15 people in the Hillingdon Independent Wheelchair Users Group based in west London in the United Kingdom for nearly two years. The interactive system was developed by researchers to help register how a person's pain changed during the day. In addition, the system can correlate pain levels to when pain medication was taken during the day.

Patients use a standard PDA to log where they feel pain on a 3-D body image. The PDA's software allows the patient to zoom in on or rotate the image as well so that pain can be documented and pinpointed at the same time. Patients can then classify pains as burning, aching, stabbing, pins and needles or numbness -- which are all represented by different colors.

The data is then stored on the PDA and is them uploaded and built upon so doctors can see a graphical representation of a patient's pain, as well as log a complete pain history from each patient.

Dr. George Ghinea, a senior lecturer at Brunel University who worked on the study, said, "We hope this provides a much more realistic view of the whole body for the patients, who say they find it much more natural to use. Also, because it uses a PDA, patients can collate the information while they are at home, and they don't have to come into the doctor's surgery."

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