Automated Pain Assessment using Electrodermal Activity Data and Machine Learning

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul:2018:372-375. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2018.8512389.

Abstract

Objective pain assessment is required for appropriate pain management in the clinical setting. However, clinical gold standard pain assessment is based on subjective methods. Automated pain detection from physiological data may provide important objective information to better standardize pain assessment. Specifically, electrodermal activity (EDA) can identify features of stress and anxiety induced by varying pain levels. However, notable variability in EDA measurement exists and research to date has demonstrated sensitivity but lack of specificity in pain assessment. In this paper, we use timescale decomposition (TSD) to extract salient features from EDA signals to identify an accurate and automated EDA pain detection algorithm to sensitively and specifically distinguish pain from no-pain conditions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Galvanic Skin Response
  • Humans
  • Machine Learning*
  • Pain
  • Pain Measurement*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity