Medasense to Provide Pain Index Solution for Treatment of Dementia Patients

Medasense has been awarded a development grant from the Israel Innovation Authority in partnership with Dorot Rehabilitation and Geriatric Medical Center, to extend the application of NOL® pain response monitoring for noncommunicating dementia patients

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Medasense Biometrics Ltd.

Dec 19, 2019, 07:14 ET

RAMAT GAN, Israel, Dec. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Medasense Biometrics Ltd. has been awarded a development grant from the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) to extend the application of its NOL^®pain response monitoring index for noncommunicating dementia patients. The development project will be conducted in collaboration with the Dorot Rehabilitation and Geriatric Medical Center in Netanya, Israel.

Medasense has been awarded a development grant, to extend the application of NOL pain response monitoring for noncommunicating dementia patients. (PRNewsfoto/Medasense Biometrics Ltd.)

According to the World Health Organization, there are some 50 million people living with dementia worldwide, and 10 million new cases every year. The condition is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people.

People with severe dementia are unable to communicate their pain. Practitioners and caregivers have long been assessing pain in dementia patients using subjective indicators, such as restlessness, agitation, facial expression, moaning, altered respiration or behavioural changes. However, these indicators fail to be specific enough to know how much pain the person is experiencing and to identify the correct form of medication to relieve their suffering.

Medasense's NOL technology enables clinicians to optimize and personalize pain control and avoid overmedication. NOL is a unique technology that applies a non-invasive sensing platform and an artificial intelligence algorithm to objectively monitor and quantify the individual patient's pain response. The technology is a known solution in operating rooms, where it helps surgical teams manage pain medication during surgery, when the patient is under anaesthesia. With the IIA grant, Medasense will now be extending its NOL pain index solution for the treatment of dementia patients.

"We are excited to be part of this pilot project with Medasense," said Dr. Ady Sasson, Deputy Director of Dorot. "As one of the largest geriatric centres in Israel, the objective and specific pain response monitoring that Medasense's NOL scale enables will allow us to significantly improve quality of care for our patients every day. "We want to make sure that we are providing our patients with individually tailored pain control: we don't want to be giving pain medication when it may not be necessary and we don't want to be undertreating pain. Until now we haven't had the tools to be able to know," he explained.

"This development grant will enable Medasense to provide tools that can help reduce suffering for dementia patients and help make sure these patients are being given optimized treatment," said Galit Zuckerman-Stark, Medasense's CEO and founder. "We are very honoured to be collaborating with the team at Dorot, who are truly motivated to improve pain care and patient outcomes. We have already proven the value of our technology for pain management (nociception monitoring) in surgical settings where patients are unable to communicate under general anaesthesia. This project, supported by the Israeli Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Health, is a welcome opportunity to make a significant impact on patients in additional settings."

About Medasense and NOL Technology

Medasense (www.medasense.com) offers a breakthrough technology that enables clinicians to optimize and personalize pain control and avoid overmedication. Medasense's flagship product, the PMD-200™ with its NOL^®index, is a unique platform that objectively monitors and quantifies the patient's pain response by means of artificial intelligence and a proprietary non-invasive sensor platform.

The PMD-200 is used to optimize pain management in critical care and operating rooms settings, where patients are unable to communicate – a $5B market. The company's pipeline cloud-based solutions for clinics and home, leveraging the NOL technology, addresses an additional $15B global market.

The PMD-200 is distributed in Europe exclusively by Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), is cleared for marketing also in Canada, Latin America and Australia, and enables connectivity with Philips patient monitors. Clinical studies have demonstrated its impact on patient safety and outcomes, including opioid-sparing.

Watch Medasense's 1-minute video.

About Dorot Rehabilitation and Geriatric Medical Center

Dorot Netanya Geriatric Medical Center is one of the largest geriatric centres in Israel. It is affiliated with the Technion Faculty of Medicine - Israel Institute of Technology, providing medical training for students specializing in geriatric medicine. Dorot's care units include chronic medicine, rehabilitation, nursing, geropsychiatry, respite care, hospice, chronic ventilator-dependent care and acute geriatric medicine. The skilled staff include hundreds of highly trained and experienced doctors, nurses, nursing aides, therapists and administrators. The award-winning facility is one of Israel's leading centres for academic research of geriatric care, advanced treatment practices, and training for new generations of geriatric professionals.

SOURCE Medasense Biometrics Ltd.