Neuronavigation has been prohibitively expensive for most neurosurgical centers. However, recent advances such as graphics processing, 3D cameras and trackers, and low cost manufacturing—have made the underlying components of neuronavigation systems accessible, and affordable. NousNav leverages these advances and harnesses open-source software to provide a complete low-cost, portable open source system for neuronavigation.
Together with her colleagues at BWH and collaborators around the world, Dr. Alexandra Golby has formulated a strategy to use these technologies to develop a low-cost neuronavigation system designed for use in low- and middle-income countries. The NousNav team are designing, building, and testing a custom neuronavigation system that leverages:
As part of this iterative process, the team is piloting the system with partner sites around the world. To ensure successful adoption of the technology, we have integrated education and training components into the project via web-based learning opportunities for surgeons in LMICs to learn from the NousNav team. We have developed a curriculum to guide implementation and evaluation of NousNav in their home institutions.
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Neurosurgeon Fahd Derkaoui Hassani demonstrated NousNav functionality to assembled residents and medical students at Abulcassis University of Health Sciences in Rabat, Morocco. For many this was their first opportunity to interact with a neuronavigation system.
