UM File # 4525

Background
Physicians place an important role on patterns of pain in the diagnosis and management of their patients. Manual palpitation is the standard method of examination, but it has certain drawbacks, namely that the procedure is subjective and lacks the precision necessary to accurately assess the degree of inflammation of arthritic patients.

Technology Description
Researchers at University of Michigan have developed a wirelessly distributed, quantitative sensory testing (QST) platform for objectively measuring pain. The system facilitates the development of various algorithms, transducers and testing protocols in order to further mechanistic pain research and aid in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of pain syndromes. This device can assess more than one sensory threshold, in order to determine if an individual is only sensitive to a single sensory modality or more than one. It will also be able to present more than one stimulus simultaneously, to allow the performance of sensory testing paradigms that require giving one stimulus while assessing the response to another.

Applications
• Pain measurement and management

Advantages
• Completely automated/computer controlled
• Wireless
• Integrated patient feedback system
• Ergonomic hand piece
• Easy to use

File Number: 4525