PainDrainer™ is winner of the first Nordic Best Health App Award

The Swedish health app PainDrainer™, a digital self-management device designed for individuals suffering from chronic pain, has won the inaugural Nordic Health App Award.

PainDrainer™ was chosen for its innovative chronic pain management solution, which uses patient-centric AI technology. The app also demonstrated strong evidence backing and readiness for market regulation.

The Nordic Health App Award scheme was developed by Nordic Innovation to showcase the potential of digital health across the Nordic states.

The Nordic region aims to be the most integrated health region in the world by 2030, according to the Nordic Council of Ministers. To facilitate this, the entire Nordic region has become the first in the world to have a cross-border programme to unify digital health standards across multiple countries.

Known as the NordDEC, the objective of the cross-border scheme is to ensure safe digital health can be delivered to patients across across Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

ORCHA worked with the Nordic Interoperability Project to develop the NordDEC framework.  The five finalist apps and overall winner PainDrainer will all received a free benchmark against the NordDec, carried out by ORCHA.

Anders Tunold-Hanssen, CEO and Project Manager, Nordic Interoperability Project AS, said: “The five finalists and the winner of the Nordic Health App Award 2023 all showcase the huge potential we have within digital health in the Nordics. But to build a healthcare system that’s sustainable and integrated by 2030, we must bridge the gap between innovation and implementation, between health-tech and healthcare. NordDEC can be that bridge.

“A shared Nordic solution will not only create a bigger and more attractive home market for our winners, but it will also attract international health tech pioneers.”

Fiona Costello, SVP of National Accreditations at ORCHA, said: “Our congratulations to PainDrainer – and our team at ORCHA look forward to guiding them through the NordDEC process. This award scheme is a great way to highlight the immense talent and entrepreneurialism across the Nordic region.”

PainDrainer™ is a digital self-management device designed for individuals suffering from chronic pain. Through a mobile application, users can log their daily activities and pain levels, allowing the app’s Artificial Neural Network to identify unique pain triggers. With 95% correct predictions after 20 days, the app then offers personalized recommendations to enhance quality of life and alleviate pain.