Abstract
In order to allocate the healthcare resource, triage classification system plays an important role in assessing the severity of illness of the boarding patient at emergency department. The self-report pain intensity numerical-rating scale (NRS) is one of the major modifiers of the current triage system based on the Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale (TTAS). The validity and reliability of self-report scheme for pain level assessment is a major concern. In this study, we model the observed expressive behaviors, i.e., facial expressions and vocal characteristics, directly from audio-video recordings in order to measure pain level for patients during triage. This work demonstrates a feasible model, which achieves an accuracy of 72.3% and 51.6% in a binary and ternary pain intensity classification. Moreover, the study result reveals a significant association of current model and analgesic prescription/patient disposition after adjusted for patient-report NRS and triage vital signs.