The aim of the NTT Project is to develop and prototype an anatomical training system of the spinal column, useful both for teaching surgical anatomy to medical students and for training experience of surgical techniques for youngsters and younger neurosurgeons. In fact, for medical and surgical students it is very important, and in some cases crucial, to practice dissection, especially as regards the study of anatomy, as well as for doctors in specialized training, mainly in surgical branches. The possibility to practice real surgery is fundamental for the development of particularly complex interventions and in the experimentation of new approaches, techniques, and technologies. In fact, although the recent diffusion of virtual surgery simulator with high authenticity, the learning process of the surgical gesture can't fail to include a physical training, in which the student learns how to dose strength thanks to the physical feedback of the manipulated tissue. Especially in Italy, the limited availability of cadavers for the purposes of study, scientific research and training often forces Universities to fall back on the use of animal species or to finance training activities in foreign facilities, with an important expense of economic resources. To fill this gap and to meet these needs, thanks to the multidisciplinary skills offered by Sapienza, the NTT project intends to develop an integrated and dynamic device capable of faithfully simulating a portion of the spine in terms of appearance and physical characteristics, and in terms of biological feedback that a live operation would require. The NTT project will be developed according to the applied research approach and it is structured in 3 main phases: - benchmarking on the state of the art of the equipment currently available and definition of medical user needs; - development of the technological-performance characteristics of the product/service; - design and development of the prototype and its validation.
