Pete, who himself lives with constant pain, asthma and osteoarthritis, took part in a pain management program in the 1990s and became a senior trainer on the NHS Expert patient programme.
For this project, he went through an intensive interview and answered hundreds of questions to enable StoryFile to develop the AI version of him. AI Pete will be able to conduct conversations, answer questions and help people with persistent pain, and will sit alongside the Pain Toolkit, a resource developed by Pete that includes guidance and information on managing pain.
We hope that the project, which will be available online, will help millions of people living with constant pain to improve their quality of life and find new methods of self-management.
“Pain is such a bad condition to live with, it wears you down and takes an emotional toll on people,” Pitt said. “Through this project, we hope to make a big difference for people living with pain because it opens up a dialogue and allows people to talk about their ongoing pain with the AI version of me when they need to.”
Denis Martin, Professor of Rehabilitation and Director of the Center for Rehabilitation at Teesside University, is leading the project. He noted that the AI agent would also provide a “unique educational resource for healthcare students”, adding: “Talking to AI Pete will allow them to understand more about the experiences of people living with persistent pain and develop key skills and understanding of how to work with the patient and the condition.”
The project is part of the EU Interreg North West Europe VR4Rehab project, supported and part-funded by the National Institute for Health and Applied Research Collaboration for North East and North Cumbria.
Teesside University develops AI agent to support pain management
