Pain is subjective and hard to treat well. A new invention could change that

The way we measure pain is often on a scale from one to 10. How bad do you feel?

It's not a perfect system. Pain is subjective, and one person's 10 could be another's three. It creates a challenge for medical professionals, especially those treating children and others who have trouble expressing themselves in words.

But a team at Children's National Research and Innovation Campus is working on something new that could change the way we pinpoint pain, and how effectively we treat it -- and the technology could give hope to millions of people who live with chronic pain.

That includes 12-year-old Kendric Cromer, who has sickle cell and lives with daily, debilitating pain.

"It's like something is clamping down on my body parts and won't let go," Cromer said. "It's too much pain for me to handle most of the time."

Last fall, he told News4 how his disease has stolen his dreams and robbed him of things most kids his age take for granted.

"When I have pain, I can't play sports with my friends, can't hang out with them, can't ride my bike," Cromer said.

At times, his pain can be hard to identify. But the new device from Children's National researchers stands to change that, revolutionizing the way doctors and patients measure pain.

"We've been working at this for over 15 years and it really is the holy grail of pain medicine," said Dr. Julia Finkel.

Finkel is the inventor of the device, which she calls a nociometer. The invention measures the intensity of pain, where it's coming from, and potentially what's causing it.

That's something current pain scales can't do.

"Those smiley faces only tell me how you feel about your pain," she said. "I want to know what's causing your pain."

Here's how it works: Electrodes are placed on a patient's hands or feet, sending a nearly undetectable buzz to the body. That effect registers in the eye -- and if the eyes are the windows to the soul, the pupil could paint the picture of pain, using an algorithm to reveal the type of pain you're feeling and the proper treatment in under 5 minutes.

"Pain is one word that reflects a whole myriad of different types of processes. So you can have normal pain, like what occurs after a broken bone or a surgical procedure," Finkel said. "You can have inflammatory pain, like occurs with lupus."

Those kinds of pain are "very different experiences, very different types of pain. And they all merit different treatments."

Finkel says the nociometer is for people of all ages, from newborns to the elderly, and for patients who are nonverbal.

"They're not seeking drugs," she said. "They're seeking relief."

But there's more work ahead. Before it goes from testing to a standard doctor's office, the nociometer needs rigorous testing.

Finkel's company, AlgometRx, was recently given a multi-million dollar grant to finalize the device and begin clinical trials. Within a few years, she hopes to get FDA approval, bringing the device to doctor's offices nationwide.

"It's an incredible privilege to be able to have impacted care in a significant way," Finkel said.

And it could give patients like Cromer hope, and an effective way to get help.

"Because I can't speak for myself for a long time," Cromer said. "I didn't feel like it. It was too much pain, too much work. I really worried that people wouldn't understand."

Cromer is back home after spending 44 days at Children's National Hospital undergoing treatment. He's the first person in the country to receive a new gene therapy for sickle cell that could cure him of the disease.

As for the nociometer, Finkel says it's for patients with a range of diseases, from autoimmune conditions to cancer.

She told News4 that she sees pain as the upstream driver of the opioid epidemic, and hopes her invention can be part of the solution as a way to objectively measure pain and treat it with the correct medication and dosage.