PainChek^® and MED e-care join forces to prioritise smarter pain management

2​7 November 2025

Digital pain assessment tool PainChek^®has announced a strategic partnership with eMAR provider MED e-care to promote best practice pain management in social care.

A leading supplier to care homes and pharmacies, MED e-care provides a full platform with an integrated Electronic Medication Management (eMAR) System. PainChek^®is the world’s first regulatory cleared digital medical device for the assessment of pain, enabling best-practice pain management, especially for those living with dementia or a cognitive impairment that impacts their ability to reliably self-report their pain.

Care home residents in the UK are prescribed an average of seven medicines a day, creating a high risk of adverse drug effects and interactions.

“Polypharmacy - an issue that has been high on the government agenda for years - is commonly defined by a person being prescribed five or more medicines per day,” says Tandeep Gill, PainChek^®’s Head of Business Development UK & Ireland. “It is therefore clear that there is a significant need for medicines optimisation across the care sector.”

One way to address polypharmacy is through better pain assessment and management, more appropriate use of medication to address pain, and understanding the link between pain and distress.

“Benzodiazepines are often prescribed for people living with dementia to tackle distress,” Tandeep explains, “but research shows that distress is often related to unrecognised pain. By effectively managing pain, we can reduce distress and therefore reliance on benzodiazepines and antipsychotics. This is important as benzodiazepines - which are prescribed to 28% of UK care home residents - act as a sedative, reducing the potential for them to participate in meaningful activity and therefore reducing their quality of life.”

The partnership between PainChek^® and MED e-care aims to address these issues by enhancing medicine optimisation. Through access to pain data insights, care professionals and GPs can make more informed decisions about pain management, supporting safer and more effective prescribing.

Laurence Bevan, Senior Care Systems Executive at MED e-care, says: “At MED e-care, we’re committed to helping care providers deliver the safest, most efficient medication management possible. Partnering with PainChek^®enables a more holistic approach to pain and medication monitoring – combining best-in-class eMAR technology with AI-driven pain assessment. Together, we’re helping care teams reduce the risks of polypharmacy and medication errors, while improving quality of life for residents and peace of mind for their families.”

Tandeep Gill, PainChek^®’s Head of Business Development UK & Ireland, adds: “Understanding and addressing the growing challenge of polypharmacy in older adults is vital to reducing medication errors - often caused by handling multiple medications - and improving quality of care. Accurate and effective pain assessment plays a key role in identifying unnecessary medication use and supporting more informed clinical decisions. By partnering with MED e-care, PainChek^® is enabling care providers to streamline documentation, enhance visibility of pain, and ultimately deliver safer, more person-centred care. We’re delighted to launch this partnership with MED e-care and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will bring to the sector.”

For more information, visit: https://painchek.com