Researchers close in on new technology for objectively measuring pain

Wunmi Sadik is the director of NJIT’s BioSensor Materials for Advanced Research and Technology (BioSMART) Center. Credit: NJIT On a scale of one to ten, how much pain do you feel? It’s a question many patients get from their doctor in the U.S. each day, often accompanied by the Visual Analogue Scale from 1-10 that was first introduced in clinics in 1921. A century later, the simple assessment is perhaps the most widely used technique for measuring pain—a chronic symptom for 21% of U.S. adults, estimated to cost up to $635 billion annually. However, while relying on patient self-reporting is Read More