News – Blog
Wearable tech could take the edge off pain
21 July 2021
- Shae Harmon
Imagine if people with persistent pain could predict or even prevent their flare ups.
This is an idea we have been working on at Challenge Works for a challenge prize to improve the quality of life for people living with persistent pain, as well as create a better public understanding of persistent pain as a health crisis.
Persistent pain is any pain that goes on for longer than would be expected after an injury, illness or stressor. Our bodies heal, but our nerves can continue to stay sensitive and cause pain in the same way they did when we were injured. It is extremely uncomfortable and still not very well understood. The unpredictability is often a barrier to completing everyday and essential tasks and interferes with peoples’ lives, casting doubt over the long-term.
We believe that having a challenge prize to gain insight on persistent pain could help inform prevention strategies and prediction methods. Gaining this insight could be accomplished by tracking biometric information, collecting behavioural and environmental data and observing patterns. Using specific methods of biofeedback to measure physical responses in the body, like a smart watch monitors your heart rate, pulse, and step count, could help to potentially:
- Predict timeframes for flare-ups so the affected person could prevent the flare up or prepare in advance.
- Prevent a full-fledged flare up from happening at it’s full strength
- Help build coping mechanisms based on biometrics that couldn’t have been planned otherwise, helping people manage their pain better.
We see this working as a challenge prize for wearable technology. Something that would collect data and manage, prevent or predict pain based on the customised data it collects – depending on what kind of device it is and what it’s ultimate goals are. How it does this and what it looks like would be up to the innovators competing for the prize and whether they have sufficient research and evidence backing their ideas.
