Conducting a Manual Facial Assessment

Next Article: Clinical Guide for Identifying PainChek Assessment Facial Features

Manual facial assessments should only be carried out when:

• the automated facial analysis fails, or
• when it is not practical to perform an automated (video-based) facial analysis

Examples of conditions where undertaking a manual assessment may be appropriate:

• inadequate lighting (Note: The App has a built in light meter and will alert the User of poor lighting conditions when a Video analysis is attempted, this provides an opportunity to optimise these).
• where the person's face is continuously moving ‘out-of-the frame’ (e.g. person will not still still)
• where it is not possible to capture a front on view of the person's face (e.g. due to posturing of the person in bed, obstruction of one side of the face)
• where the person behaviour renders it potentially unsafe to conduct an automated facial analysis (e.g. patient is too aggressive, agitated, abusive or distressed)

In all cases where an Unsuccessful (automated) Analysis occurs, it is recommended that another attempt (Retry) is made before resorting to a Manual Assessment. Where possible, optimise the conditions to allow an automated analysis. If this is not feasible, then perform a manual assessment by selecting the "Manual" option from the New Assessment form.

1. Find the resident you would like to conduct an assessment on and tap the Resident to go into their profile.

2. Tap ASSESS PAIN button

3. You may at this stage be asked what sort of assessment you want to perform - PainChek® or Numerical Rating Scale (Self-Report).  Select the PainChek option and press Next

Note that this form will only appear if you PainChek license has been configured to support Numerical Rating Scale (Self-Report) assessments.  If that option is not enabled on your license, a PainChek assessment is assumed and this form is skipped.

4. The new assessment screen will be displayed. Tap on the assessment status of the client (At Rest or Post Movement), select the Manual facial analysis option, and then press NEXT:

Notes:

1. The Facial analysis defaults to Video and so you will need to change it to Manual
2. The NEXT button is only enabled once you have selected At Rest or Post Movement (neither of which is selected by default)
3. In the screenshot above, the user has selected the Post Movement timing option

5. The Face domain:  Whilst observing the resident’s face "Check" those facial expressions the resident is exhibiting. Be certain to observe the resident brow, eyes, nose, cheeks and mouth.

Next Article: Clinical Guide for Identifying PainChek Assessment Facial Features