Treating chronic pain presents numerous challenges due to its complex and multifactorial nature. First, chronic pain often lacks a clear underlying cause or may be influenced by a combination of physical, psychological, and social factors. This complexity makes it challenging to identify the precise source of pain and develop targeted treatment strategies. Additionally, individual responses to pain and pain medications can vary greatly, requiring a personalized approach to care. Finally, the long-term nature of chronic pain necessitates a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach, involving a range of healthcare professionals, to address the physical, emotional, and functional aspects of the condition. In order to help physicians address each of those elements, Ethos Labs developed the Foundation Pain Index (FPI) test.

What is FPI?

FPI is the world’s first objective, non-invasive biochemical pain index that gives practitioners confidence in personalized treatment options for their patients. FPI consolidates 11 biomarker results from a single urinalysis sample into a single pain index score that describes the probability that biochemical abnormalities are contributing to a patient’s pain.

What Are The Key Benefits of FPI?

The insights derived from FPI testing enable physicians to better understand the origins of  pain in their patient populations. By identifying biochemical abnormalities physicians can create more optimal treatment plans with significantly less trial and error. Further, physicians who leveraged FPI were 62% less likely to order unnecessary imaging – significantly reducing the costs of treatment for their patients. Lastly, insights from FPI often enable physicians to prescribe smaller doses of opioids – or in some cases avoid opioids altogether, helping to minimize negative side effects for the patient.

How Does FPI Differ From SF-36 or PROMIS-29?

SF-36 & PROMIS-29 are two self-reported and subjective surveys that can be used to help quantify and qualify a patient’s pain. While both have a solid body of academic research validating their efficacy they still have one significant drawback: they are subjective in nature. FPI, in contrast, is an objective biomarker analysis that helps illuminate how abnormal biochemistry in the patient may be contributing to their pain. FPI analysis is shown to be highly correlated with SF-36 & PROMIS-29, but has shown to be a more reliable method of understanding a patient’s pain while also providing physicians valuable insights on how to address the root cause of the pain.

How Can I Use FPI In My Practice?

Physicians have leveraged FPI in a number of different ways when treating their patient populations. At a high level, we have seen the most powerful patient outcomes when physicians have prescribed supplementation to address biochemical, metabolic, or nutritional abnormalities and used FPI to measure the impact of this supplementation.

Interested in learning more about FPI and how to use it in your practice? Request a consultation here.