{"id":25791,"date":"2025-04-28T17:44:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T17:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=25791&post_type=story"},"modified":"2025-05-05T18:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T18:20:04","slug":"pains-silent-signals","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/pains-silent-signals\/","title":{"rendered":"Pain’s Silent Signals"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been more than 30 years since Martin Schiavenato \u201907PhD <\/strong>tried to comfort a newborn girl in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Tallahassee, Florida. She was born with a genetic disorder where the epithelial tissue that protects all internal and external surfaces of the body is missing. Her skin sloughed off. The simplest touch caused pain, but she had no way to communicate the extent of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memory is seared into my mind,\u201d Schiavenato says.<\/p>\n

A trained nurse, he vividly remembers taking 12-hour overnight shifts with the little girl. He couldn\u2019t swaddle her. He couldn\u2019t give her a pacifier. He couldn\u2019t even change her diaper without causing pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything you want to do for an infant, instinctually and therapeutically, you couldn\u2019t do,” says Schiavenato, who is now an associate professor at Gonzaga University. “We were left to give her morphine, which can cause permanent damage when the brain is still developing. I kept telling myself, \u2018We should have a way to assess pain for patients who can\u2019t verbalize it.\u2019 No matter how short that little girl\u2019s life would be, I wanted to make it count. That\u2019s how my long journey began.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journey led him on a route rarely followed, from bedsides in the NICU to UCF where he joined the university\u2019s first-ever cohort of doctoral nursing<\/a> students aiming to be among the less than 1% of nurses in the U.S. who have Ph.D.s. Schiavenato chose a track in innovative technologies. He took courses in engineering and collaborated with computer science students, driven by the desire to create something tangible rather than theoretical \u2014 a path made possible by UCF\u2019s interdisciplinary work in health and human performance<\/a>. For his dissertation, he researched signals that might indicate the severity of pain among patients who are unable to report it for themselves.<\/p>\n

People with dementia, for example. Or babies.<\/p>\n

\u201cA patient\u2019s inability to verbalize how much pain they\u2019re in will directly affect our ability to treat it with precision. I knew that I needed to develop a device somehow.\u201d \u2014 Martin Schiavenato \u201907PhD<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Schiavenato\u2019s tireless work reached its most recent milestone when Aster DM Healthcare chose him as one of 10 finalists from among a pool of 78,000 entries for the prestigious 2024 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award. If he needed a boost of inspiration, he drew it from the award ceremony in India. There, Schiavenato met a man from rural Papua New Guinea who spends two days crossing rivers and mountains to reach patients. He spoke with people from regions in Africa where the infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world. <\/p>\n

Turns out, the inspiration was mutual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe honorees understood what I\u2019m doing and why,\u201d Schiavenato says. \u201cThere\u2019s always something tugging at my heart \u2014 always<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schiavenato received similar encouragement from mentors and colleagues during his time at UCF. He\u2019d spend days and nights at Winnie Palmer Hospital observing newborns reacting to heel sticks, a blood testing method. That\u2019s where he began to note a consistency in facial expressions, especially in the lower jaw. The natural grimace became Schiavenato\u2019s first building block. Next, he gathered evidence of infants in distress raising one hand to the forehead and splaying the fingers. Over time, he investigated heart-rate variability among newborns and added his findings to create a composite pain score.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese three signals \u2014 facial expression, finger splaying and heart rate variability \u2014 tell us each baby\u2019s story of pain,\u201d Schiavenato says.<\/p>\n

To convert the signals into a useful tool, he ventured into artificial intelligence<\/a>. With enough data fed into an algorithm, a pain score could be monitored 24\/7. After working with engineers at UCF, the University of Rochester and Washington State University, Schiavenato finally patented a prototype device that some refer to as \u201cthe orb\u201d because of the shape of the earliest versions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken three decades of literal blood, sweat and tears to get to this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now comes the hard part,\u201d Schiavenato says.<\/p>\n

He needs teams to conduct hundreds of clinical trials across the country. He needs hospitals and nurses to participate. He needs babies in NICUs and cooperation from their families. Schiavenato has the heart and good intentions, but taking the next steps will require finances. Investors want to know how much money they stand to make \u2014 and how soon.<\/p>\n

As a doctoral graduate with knowledge of economic development<\/a>, he understands the importance of the return on investment. But as a medical practitioner, he understands the problem of unspoken pain. He\u2019s seen it with his own eyes. He can never forget it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always this question in my mind: \u2018Who will help the voiceless experiencing pain?\u2019 I simply want to do something for them. To me, that\u2019s the currency that counts.\u201d \u2014 Martin Schiavenato \u201907PhD<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Schiavenato is now 56 and lives in the Northwest for the quiet commutes and to raise chickens in the forested mountains. Out here, it\u2019s easy to think. Sometimes he thinks about getting a few goats. He always thinks of that baby girl. And now he can also think about his bond with the Aster Guardians finalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI draw a lot of personal comfort from knowing there are people around the world doing the same thing,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying out best to help others because we care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":25854,"template":"","categories":[],"tags":[405,1737,1452],"class_list":["post-25791","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-college-of-nursing","tag-martin-schiavenato","tag-ucf-alumni","issues-spring-2025"],"yoast_head":"\nPain's Silent Signals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Martin Schiavenato \u201907PhD has spent decades developing a tool to measure pain for patients who can\u2019t verbalize it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pain's Silent Signals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Martin Schiavenato \u201907PhD 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