Researchers at University of South Florida are working toward being able to objectively gauge the level of discomfort in a newborn. The team includes engineers specilizing in facial recognition software and neonatal nurses who have developed a keen sense of being able to tell whether babies are in serious pain or just crying because they’re simply hungry.
They are using cameras to record the faces of the children before, during, and after procedures, as well as to capture the sounds they produce. This data was also combined with brain oxygenation readings taken using near-infrared spectroscopy.
In a study involving 53 neonates, the technology was used to estimate the discomfort of the children and the results were compared to the estimated provided by trained nurses. This allows the team to fine tune the system to result in much better correlation, and hopefully a way of monitoring children continuously for signs of pain and discomfort.
“Babies hospitalized in the NICU experience many painful procedures and research has shown that these painful experiences are associated with altered development of the infants brains and can impact them long term,” in a statement said Terri Ashmeade, MD, professor of pediatrics in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and chief quality officer for USF Health. Babies cannot tell us when they are experiencing pain, or how intense their pain might be. So the most important thing about this research is that, by coupling computer vision technology with vocal responses, we can have a fuller understanding for what our patients are experiencing and know when we should intervene. And that precision in knowing when they are feeling pain would prevent us from exposing babies to medications they don’t need.”
Via: USF Health…