Major award for Iraqi-Australian doctor behind breakthrough app which can 'read' faces to gauge pain levels

An Iraqi-Australian doctor has received a prestigious award for an app which can 'read' people's faces to guage pain levels. The application is being seen as a breakthrough in the treatment of people with advanced Alzheimer's disease and has already been used to make 1.5 million pain assessments.

Key Points

• Dr Mustafa Abdul Wahed has received a major award for the invention of a pain assessment app
• The invention is a breakthrough in the treatment of non-verbal patients including the very elderly and those with dementia, Alzherimer's
• The app 'reads' facial expressions to gauge pain levels

Dr Mustafa Abdul Wahed has received an Innovation Award from Curtin University for his invention of smartphone applications which will improve the treatment of thousands of people with a variety of conditions including dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The suite of apps have been used to diagnose more than 12,000 people and make more than 1.5 million pain assessments completed since the inventions went to market in 2017.

This technology is used daily, especially in Australia and New Zealand as well as the United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada.

Dr Wahed arrived in Australia in 1998 and has already chalked up five patents for medical devices such as the apps to evaluate pain levels.

He has also participated in more than 40 global scientific conferences in the fields of pain, Alzheimer's disease, ageing and care for the elderly.

Dr Mustafa Abdul Wahed

Dr Wahed said while dementia and Alzheimer's disease in themselves did not cause pain, people with these conditions were at increased risk of other events which could such as falls, accidents and other injuries.

In addition, diseases such as Alzheimer's reduced people's ability to describe and explain their pain to treating doctors. The app cuts through this communication difficulty and gauges pain through facial recognition technology, he said.

Dr Wahed told SBS Arabic24's 'Australia Today' program: “I have four university degrees (Bachelor of Pharmacy, Higher Diploma, Master of Clinical Pharmacy, and a PhD in Pain in Alzheimer's and Geriatric Diseases) from Curtin University in Western Australia.”

“I have published more than 20 scientific papers in the most prestigious scientific journals on topics such as Alzheimer's disease.

"I also have five patents for medical devices such as the smartphone applications to evaluate pain for Alzheimer's diseases and ageing.”

Dr Wahed has also published two chapters on these fields in a new book entitled 'The BPSD Textbook' as well as supervising doctoral dissertations at various Australian universities.

He said the apps were vital because some elderly people could not express their needs and feelings of pain at times.

“I presented this research to Curtin University in Perth. I was awarded the Scientific Innovation Award last week in recognition of my innovation and relentless pursuit of humanity,” he said.

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