In 1940, James D. Hardy, Harold G. Wolff and Helen Goodell of Cornell University introduced the first dolorimeter as a method for evaluating the effectiveness of analgesic medications.
[5] Harvard Medical School Professor and Massachusetts General Hospital anaesthetist Henry K. Beecher (1957) expressed skepticism about this method of measuring pain.
[6] In 1945, Time reported that Cleveland's Lorand Julius Bela Gluzek had developed a dolorimeter that measured pain in grams.
[9] The Sonic Palpometer uses ultrasound and computer technology to automate the physician's technique of palpation to determine sensitivity of some part of the patient's body.
Other terms for similar instruments include algesiometer, algesichronometer (which also takes time into consideration), analgesia meter, algometer, algonometer, prick-algesimeter, pressure-algometer.