The project Pinch started from the observation of a health issue which is becoming more and more spread: chronic pain. Millions all over the world suffer from it, with heavy social implications, but most of the time it is not adequately treated as a disease in its own right, but only as a result of other health problems.
People suffering from this condition should study their experience of pain to understand better what can be good and what can be bad, so that they can adapt their lifestyle to suffer less. Nowadays, the most common way to do this is by using paper diaries, which have many flaws: they can be hard to carry around when you get out of home, require much time to fill with all the information and allow neither easy sharing of the data with doctors nor statistical analysis.
Is it possible to make all of this easier and more pleasant with the use of modern technology?
Pinch is a system for chronic pain management, composed of an interactive bracelet, a docking base for recharging and synchronising, and an online application. The bracelet allows a patient to record the pain level through the day, whenever and wherever is needed, together with pulse rate, drug consumption, physical activity level and quality of sleep.
Through the docking base, data recorded in the bracelet is transferred to the servers of the system, and become consultable with a graphic interface which let the user analyse possible patterns and get meaningful insights, thanks to the possibility of adding comments and details to every record of pain.
Collected data can be shared with doctors and relatives, so they can be updated in real time about the condition of the patient. This provides a positive psychological effect to the user, which is reassured that he/she can be contacted by the doctors between physical examinations, if they see that the pain level is getting too high.
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