Upper Nyack, New York-based CreakyJoints have relaunched their algorithmic-based web site featuring an interactive pain assessment tool called PainSpot.org.
“We’ve integrated PainSpot into our family of educational resources for people living with chronic disease,” stated Louis Tharp, executive director and co-founder of CreakyJoints and the Global Healthy Living Foundation.
“In the future, we will utilize our patient-centered user experience, accessibility, and educational capacities to increase site volume and algorithm accuracy, build stronger linkages between the users and healthcare providers or health system ports of entry, and conduct research to measure long-term impact on health outcomes of PainSpot.”
To use PainSpot, visitors to the web site click on the area of the body where they are experiencing pain and then answers a series of questions about the pain. CreakyJoints explained to OTW that the questions are from the same validated clinical decision-making tools used in a clinical setting. The site visitor can receive a summary of three possible causes of the pain and is invited to join, at no cost, the Global Healthy Living Foundation, CreakyJoints and/or the ArthritisPower Research Registry. They later receive a follow-up email series that could help move towards diagnosis and “chart a pathway for living the best, healthiest life with that condition or post-injury.”
CreakyJoints is part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation (GHLF) and has a patient-reported outcomes registry—Arthritis Power—that has more than 22,000 consented arthritis patients who track their disease while volunteering to participate in longitudinal and observational research.
Asked about the algorithm, Seth Ginsberg, president and co-founder of CreakyJoints and the Global Healthy Living Foundation, told OTW, “The PainSpot algorithm, originally developed by Dr. Doug Roberts and then refined by the Global Healthy Living Foundation after the acquisition in 2018, utilizes a series of expertly collated questions to dynamically generate a pain model for each individual using the tool.”
“Based off the individuals’ responses, the tool allows users to see where and how they’re feeling pain. The algorithm can then rank possible causes of the pain, with an output of three potential diagnoses (ranked as either high, moderate, or low risk) along with accompanying explanations and suggestions for how to seek help and proper medical care with this information. PainSpot is not a substitute for proper medical care, and is meant to provide direction toward that care, and is not meant to be a definitive diagnosis.”
“Patients turn to ‘Dr. Google’ for answers about the cause and potential treatment of their ailments, and the Internet is full of sites that aim to sell a product or service to capitalize on vulnerable people seeking relief. GHLF and CreakyJoints, a 20-year-old non-profit patient-centered organization with the mission to improve the lives for people living with chronic illness, is uniquely equipped to support the high volume of searches for answers, support and medical care related to pain.”
“The most useful part about PainSpot is that it’s a simple tool to use, and because it’s offered by a patient-centered organization (GHLF), there are no hidden sales pitches, or promotional components. Patients feel comforted when they learn that there’s a possible name for their pain, that they’ve been given direction by a caring and established organization, and that they aren’t being sold anything.”
