Dolography facilitates the communication between the persons concerned and the specialists
Persons suffering from pain have often difficulties to communicate it verbally.
The fact that it is very difficult to express the pain in words makes the pain treatment very challenging because the treatment relies strongly on the person’s pain description.
Using Dolography image cards, the person concerned has the possibility to describe the subjective pain more accurately and precisely. The communication is facilitated, and the pain situation becomes manageable.
Benefits of Dolography at a glance.
Benefits for specialists
- Pain problems become concrete and manageable
- Diagnosis is more precise and pain therapy can be adapted
- holistic assessment possible: psychological, social and spiritual dimensions can be assed with Dolography
- Because of the facilitated communication, the therapeutic relationship is strengthened
- Dolography can be used as a complement to the conventional assessment instruments: especially the pain quality which is usually hard to describe can be assed more precisely.
Benefits for patients
- The pain sensation can be perceived, described and externalised in more detail (this alone can already reduce the perceived dominance of the problem).
- Interest of the medical specialist is recognised: the person concerned feels understood and taken seriously.
- The trust in the therapeutic relationship is enhanced
- Self-effectiveness is experienced
Fields of application
Dolography can be applied in all fields of health care and can be used by all professions:
- as a helpful tool during the pain anamnesis
- as a supportive tool for the communication between patient and therapist
- in combination with other common pain therapy procedures
- in the field of counselling/coaching
- in the field of education
Target group
- Adults, adolescents and children
- Individual and group therapy
- diverse causes of pain
Unspecific sensation disorders (e.g. numbness, discomfort, sting) - Requirements: Patients must have the cognitive abilities to choose a corresponding image and the communication skills to explain the choice
Implementation
Patients are presented with the Dolography image cards in a random order. They are invited to select the images which represent their pain sensations best. Afterwards, patients are asked to explain their choices.
Depending on the patient, the therapy situation and the available time, the procedure can easily be modified and combined with other assessment-instruments.
The Powerpoint presentation «Pain assessment with Dolography» for an employee training can be bought in the shop.
Development and collaboration with different experts and hospitals
Dolography was developed by the two communication designers Sabine Affolter and Katja Rüfenacht in close collaboration with different pain experts.
The Dolography image cards were tested in several pain therapy sessions and were considered as effective and helpful.
Since 2016, Dolography is used in several hospitals in Europe and by different professions in the health care sector.
Latest study on Dolography in the professional journal DER SCHMERZ :
“A picture is worth a thousand words… : Diagnosis of orofacial pain using Dolografie®”
by Dr. med. dent. Carolin Luise Bohn and Prof. Dr. med. dent. Jens Christoph Türp, Der Schmerz (2021;35:307-314), Springer Medicine.
An extract of the results can also be found here.