A novel method for identification of patients at risk of deterioration using FACS

Facial displays are used by health professionals to assess the wellbeing of patients at risk of deterioration. Surprisingly, there is not a single early warning system based on the assessment of facial expressions. There is ample literature that supports the study of face expressions by means of anatomical based score systems, such as FACS (1). Preliminary studies suggested that outreach nurses identified mostly sadness and fear in patients at risk of deterioration (2). As part of a pilot study on analysing facial expressions in critical illness, this research has compared Action Units (AU in FACS terminology) from patients at risk of deterioration against AU inferred from 20 facial images of patients deemed to die.