The patented AsTris 1.0 spine simulator (BioTras) has been launched at the 18th annual American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) conference. The product is designed to help doctors get training experience without the need to practice on a cadaver or a real person.
“This is the product of the decade,” says Rasmin Benyamin, an interventional pain physician and ASIPP Board President for 2014-2015. “When I…saw how the spine model worked, I knew it was going to be a big deal. I consider it the best teaching tool for interventional pain physicians.”
Designed by pain management doctors Johnny East and Brandon Knutson, owners of BioTras, AsTris is made of a fusible thermoplastic material.
The AsTris 1.0 body is clear, which is intended to allow the practitioner to observe needle movement as the needle is advanced towards the spine.
It is made of re-constructed human vertebrae and other real bone elements that can be viewed under X-ray.
“Doctors and other medical professionals are surprised that the AsTris material is reusable an indefinite number of times and that it uses authentic human bone,” says Knutson. “That…limits the use of cadavers, and it looks real under X-ray and to the naked eye because it is real.”
The AsTris is designed to be customisable, to include a variety of skeletal structures to meet a wider scope of training needs.
