Changing pain without a baseline is difficult to evaluate.
Something feels different — but different from what?
And measured how?
A baseline answers the question that everything afterwards depends on:
what is happening now?
What Do We Mean by a Pain Baseline?
A baseline is a recorded starting reference.
In pain assessment it can contain more than one type of information:
- what the person reports — including their pain score
- what the instrument records — the measurable physical response
- the movement task — the physical context in which both are recorded
These are different information sources.
None of them, on its own, explains the complete cause of the others.
Pain Score Is One Part of the Baseline
The pain score is what the person reports.
It matters. It is real information about the person's experience.
It is not:
- a Sensor Sling measurement
- a pressure measurement
- a diagnosis
- a direct measurement of tissue damage
Physical Measurement Is Different Information
Physical measurement records what the instrument records during a defined task.
The two can be compared over time without pretending they are the same variable.
PAIN SCORE = WHAT THE PERSON REPORTS.
PHYSICAL MEASUREMENT = WHAT THE INSTRUMENT RECORDS.
Why Measure Before Changing the Input?
Without a baseline, change is difficult to compare objectively.
Something feels different — but different from what, measured against what?
A recorded starting reference turns "it feels different" into something that can be examined: what did we measure before, what did we measure after, and what changed in between?
That is as true for pain as for any other assessment.
The Person Becomes Their Own Comparison
I AM 900 does not compare everyone against one universal "normal".
The baseline establishes where this person is starting from. The retest compares this person with their own recorded starting point.
Different people can respond differently to the same input. The measurement is not used to force each person toward an ideal movement — it is used to compare the person with themselves.
What Can Be Physically Measured?
Where supported by the instrument setup, relevant measurable variables can include:
- pressure
- pressure distribution
- angle and orientation
- speed / rate of change
- timing
- sequence
- repeatability
- loading
- movement response
Not every configuration measures every variable. The measurement set is chosen to fit the question.
Sensor Sling and Pressure-Mat Measurement
The I AM 900 Sensor Sling records physical measurements through the Sling system. Where supported by the configuration, these can include distributed Sling pressure, pressure by sensor zone, Sling angle and orientation, and the timing, sequence and repeatability of recorded responses.
Pressure-mat measurement is separate. Where used, it may describe ground and contact loading — including left/right loading, pressure distribution and changes in loading over time.
SENSOR SLING = pressure / physical response at the Sling measurement location.
PRESSURE MAT = ground / contact loading information.
MOVEMENT = the physical context.
PAIN SCORE = the person's reported experience.
Measurement is a description, not a diagnosis: none of these records independently diagnoses the cause of pain.
Change the Input
A baseline alone does not change anything.
Calibration changes an input — practitioner-directed, deliberately chosen so the subsequent response can be meaningfully compared.
Retest the Pain Score and Physical Response
The retest repeats both sources:
- the pain score — what the person reports now
- the physical measurement — what the instrument records now
Under the same defined task, under comparable conditions.
Compare What Changed
Comparison happens on each side separately:
what changed in what the person reports.
what changed in what was recorded.
Neither automatically explains the other. Both are information.
BASELINE. MEASURE. CHANGE THE INPUT. RETEST. COMPARE.
