There are a number of factors besides verbal communication that...

There are a number of factors besides verbal communication that one can use to asses a persons pain from both monitoring of both behavioral and vital signs. In particular while it may be difficult to assess people with cognitive impairments or lack of verbal communication. Typically medical practitioners look at the following behaviours to establish whether or not someone is pain.

• Facial expressions: Frowning, distorted expression, grimace
• Non verbal vocalizations: Sighing, moaning, calling out, crying
• Body movement: Restlessness, erratic movements, discomfort
• Changes in interpersonal interactions: Aggressive, resisting care, irritable, disruptive, withdrawn
• Changes in activity patterns: Appetite change, sleep change etc.

Pain can also manifest physiologically. Such indicators are as follows:

• Increased heart rate
• Increased blood pressure
• Increased breathing rate

Most people in pain would exhibit some to all of them behaviors so they are not limited to those who can only communicate verbally. If we look at a baby for instance typical indicators of pain would be; crying, erratic body movements and of course there facial expression. Those are not typical forms of communication however most mothers can identify when there baby is in pain.

We know that the ePAT app usse some of these other forms of communication to determine whether or not these people are in pain. The announcement indicates; This data (Facial expressions) is then combined with other indicators of pain, such as vocalisations (crying etc.), behaviors and movements captured through the ePAT App uses that data to detect patterns, to calculate a pain severity score.