Using AI for Chronic Pain Assessment and Malingering Detection

Pain is an unpleasant feeling and a significant health issue. A 2021 report by the Canadian Pain Task Force indicates that one in five people in Canada live with chronic pain, many of whom report it adversely affecting some or most daily activities. Chronic pain also has a tremendous impact on the Canadian economy. Additionally, the lack of effective and specialized pain services, long waiting times, and the scarcity of trained pain management professionals exacerbates the hopelessness for people who live with pain. This reduces productivity due to unemployment and absenteeism among individuals living with activity-limiting chronic pain. Hence, pain assessment is essential to providing proper patient care and assessing its efficacy under clinical settings. To assess pain, physicians typically rely on patients’ statements, which are subjective, or imaging technologies, which are unreliable as detected abnormalities do not always indicate pain and are not always present in cases of chronic pain. The Karmy Clinic specializes in assessing and managing patients with chronic non-malignant pain. For nearly two decades, Karmy Clinics have performed medicolegal assessments for several clients including lawyers and medicolegal assessment centres. Karmy Clinics currently process about 40 of such assessments per month representing over $100M in assessments, legal processing fees, and claim payments each year. Leveraging AI could improve the accuracy and efficiency of pain assessment and detection of malingering. This is the central focus of this project.

Faculty Supervisor:

Haruna Isah

Student:

Partner:

Karmy Clinic

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning

Program: