Digital Pain Assessment in Dementia: The DIGITPAIN Research Project Investigates Practical Applicability in Long-Term Care

Bielefeld (hsbi). The project, whose full title is “Feasibility of digital and technology-based pain assessment in non-verbal people with dementia and technology acceptance among nursing staff in inpatient long-term care,” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) with just under 90,000 euros as part of the DATIpilot programme. During the 18-month project period, Hochschule Bielefeld – University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSBI) will collaborate closely with the von Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel. The Australian company PainChek Ltd. serves as the technology partner. The project leader at HSBI’s Faculty of Health is Prof. Dr. med. Rena Amelung, with Dr. Olga Grintsova, MPH, serving as her deputy.

From validation to real-world care settings

The DIGITPAIN project builds on a validation study that was completed at the end of 2025. In that study, HSBI was able to confirm the scientific reliability of the German version of the PainChek® app for people with dementia. The app combines use of artificial intelligence to detect facial muscle activity indicative of pain with an observation protocol from nursing staff to generate a pain score and level. DIGITPAIN now focuses on the crucial step from theory to practice: it investigates whether and how the digital solution is being adopted in the actual day-to-day reality of long-term care in Germany. The focus is deliberately on technology acceptance and implementation barriers from the perspective of nursing staff.

Six-month field trial 

The centrepiece of the project, which officially kicks off on 17 November 2026, is a six-month pilot phase at three inpatient long-term care facilities in Bielefeld, scheduled to begin the implementation phase in March 2027. During this phase, nursing staff will use the PainChek® app to independently assess pain in residents with moderate to severe dementia without intervention from the research team.

The pilot phase will be supported by a scientific “mixed methods design”: before and after the pilot phase, detailed questionnaires will be completed and interviews will be conducted with nursing staff and physicians. To ensure the quality of the digital pain assessment, pseudonymised care data will also be analysed – including changes in pain medication, the frequency of falls and hospital admissions.

A model for all of Germany?

The overall goal of DIGITPAIN is to develop a practical implementation concept that demonstrates how digital pain assessment can be seamlessly integrated into existing workflows. The participating long-term care facilities of the von Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel serve as a model region. The concept developed there is to be adapted so that it has the potential to be scaled up to the approximately 11,000 long-term care facilities throughout Germany. In this way, the project could make a key contribution to improving health care for people with dementia.  (vku)

Experience the PainChek® app first-hand at the Wissenswerkstadt Bielefeld

On Thursday 5 November 2026, the project will be presented from 6.00 pm to 7.00 pm as part of the GENIALE event at the Wissenswerkstadt, in the ‘Ageing’ series under the title ‘Technology for the Medicine of the Future’.
Register at https://wissenswerkstadt.de/altern