Neurophysiological Pain Assessment via Brain Network Activity Patterns
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for managing labor pain are inadequate due to reliance on drug administration, which carries side effects, and lack of accurate timing for hospital arrival, with nurses often unable to record pain frequency reliably.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for analyzing neurophysiological data to identify activity-related features, constructing a brain network activity (BNA) pattern, and calculating its similarity to a baseline pattern to assess the likelihood of labor pain, allowing for personalized pain management and potential treatment efficacy assessment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If drug administration is used for pain control, then pain management effectiveness is improved, but side effects for mother and baby increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces pharmacological intervention (chemical system) with a neurophysiological monitoring and stimulation system. The system uses electrodes to detect brain activity patterns and delivers targeted electrical stimulation to specific brain regions to modulate pain perception, thereby avoiding drug-related side effects while maintaining pain management effectiveness
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a neurophysiological monitoring system as an intermediary between pain occurrence and pain management intervention. The system continuously monitors brain activity patterns to detect pain onset and triggers targeted stimulation only when needed, creating a precise, on-demand pain management approach that avoids unnecessary drug exposure
2Loss of information
If nurses manually record pain frequency, then pain timing information can be obtained, but recording reliability is reduced due to nurse availability issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service pain monitoring by using the mother's own brain activity patterns as the monitoring mechanism. The neurophysiological sensors continuously and automatically detect pain-related brain wave patterns without requiring external observation or manual recording, ensuring reliable pain timing information is captured regardless of nurse availability
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback monitoring by continuously analyzing brain activity patterns and immediately detecting pain onset. The real-time feedback loop ensures that pain timing information is captured accurately and continuously, eliminating gaps that occur with manual recording methods
3Measurement precision
If neurophysiological data analysis is used to assess labor pain, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the critical neurophysiological features related to pain perception from the complex brain activity data. By focusing on specific frequency bands and temporal patterns that are known to correlate with pain, the system achieves high measurement precision while avoiding the need to process and analyze the entire complexity of brain activity
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms complex neurophysiological data into simplified pain assessment parameters by analyzing specific characteristics of brain waves (frequency, amplitude, temporal patterns). This parameter transformation approach maintains high measurement precision while reducing the computational and operational complexity of the system
Data Source
AI summary
A method of managing pain using neurophysiological data acquired from the brain of a subject is disclosed. The method comprises: identifying activity-related features in the data; parceling the data according to the activity-related features to define a plurality of capsules, each representing a spatiotemporal activity region in the brain; comparing at least some of the defined capsules to at least one reference capsule; and assessing the likelihood that the subject is experiencing pain responsively to the comparison.