Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Spinal surgeries are amongst the most complex from a biomechanical perspective considering the spine is anx000D
intricate mechanical system. Conventional training of spine surgeries is very costly and not optimized towardsx000D
skillset acquisition. The purpose of this exploratory phase project is to conceive a 3D model of the spine,x000D
surrounding tissues, and nerves. Completion of this step will then lead towards the subsequent collaborationsx000D
aimed to perform research, development and experimental validation of new virtual reality platform, inclusivex000D
of haptic feedback, focusing of common spinal surgical procedures.x000D
In brief, a virtual reality surgical trainer, targeting spine surgery, comprises a visual display of an open spinex000D
with which a clinician interacts by means of surgical tool haptic controls. The feedback, both haptic and visual,x000D
are provided by FEA based computations in real-time and then the user may virtually perform a surgicalx000D
procedure. The technical challenge lies in the conception of a 3D spine model and then the discretization of ax000D
finite element model optimized for parallel computing on the graphical processing unit for real-time analysis.x000D
This project, an exploratory phase collaboration planned between CAE Healthcare and Prof. Driscoll fromx000D
McGill University, will seek to achieve this first step towards the commercial offering of a computationallyx000D
finite element based surgical virtual reality trainer for spine procedures. In addition to this targeted outcome,x000D
the collaboration and training of students will be of benefit to the growing demand of biomedical engineers inx000D
Canada. An inter-disciplinary research team with relevant competence in conjunction with the granting of thisx000D
NSERC Engage application will insure such benefits come to fruition.