One in five individuals suffers from chronic pain, one of the most common causes of long-term disability in the world, with a devastating impact on the quality of life of over 1.5 B people. Chronic pain is strongly associated with serious co-morbidities and with an increased risk of death by suicide. The cost to society due to productivity loss and healthcare costs for pain management amounts to around € 441 B annually for Europe only – or 1.5%-3% GDP.
Current pain management solutions only partially address the needs of chronic pain patients: pharmacological therapies often induce side effects and in some cases drug addiction, limiting their efficacy and applicability for many patients; more recent non-pharmacological treatments based on neurostimulation are either associated with surgery and related risks or lack techniques for necessary personalization of treatment.
SzeleSTIM has developed the AuriMod system, the first chronic pain management system based on neurostimulation that enables tailoring the stimulation – hence, pain perception – on the individual patient’s needs non-invasively. The AuriMod system is composed of a discrete wearable device for controlled stimulation of the vagus nerve in the ear according to the measured patient’s physiological parameters and pain, a smartphone application, and of an online therapy management platform for data visualization and remote monitoring of the therapeutic progress.
Within the proposed project, SzeleSTIM aims at optimising the AuriMod design and performance, completing the therapy management system, preparing for industrial-scale production, and executing clinical validation through a European multi-national trial for CE marking.
