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Kipuwex and Mendolor collaborate to develop hospital pain measurement

Start-up companies Kipuwex from Oulu and Mendolor from Turku combine their forces to introduce objective pain measurement in hospital care. 

Kipuwex has developed an IoT device that is attached to a patient’s chest, measuring pain experienced by babies and people unable to express their pain. Kipuwex has previously signed a research and co-operation agreement with MiniSV in Nanjing, China.

Mendolor examines the combination of subjective and objective pain evaluation, primarily in the treatment of post-operative pain. Subjective pain information is described by patients themselves, while medically measured information is considered objective. The goal is to produce a "predictable algorithm" that predicts recovery processes and the amount of medication required. Mendolor has a cooperation agreement with COMB+ in Beijing.

The signed cooperation agreement is mutually beneficial: it allows the two companies to combine their USPs, Kipuwex focusing on the development of care for children (0-7 years), and Mendolor targeting the adult population. 

Although pain measurement with pen and paper has been a common practice in hospitals for decades, the system lacks meaningfulness in practical nursing. The gathered information has not been readily utilized nor shared in treatment and medication.

Good pain management has many functions. It alleviates suffering, reduces complications, promotes patient healing, and shortens the duration of hospitalization. In particular, relieving pain is especially important in premature babies whose central nervous system have not yet fully developed. Their untreated pain can leave a lifelong trace that can later disturb child development.

The need for pain measurement is urgent. The opioid crisis, resulting from bad pain medication practices in the United States, has led to growing deaths around the world. Precise information on the effects of drugs will enable accurate development of substitutes for opioid drugs.