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null Mark Driscoll, PhD

Investigator, RI-MUHC

Surgical and Interventional Sciences Program

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University

 

Keywords

spine • biomechanics • musculoskeletal • simulation

Research Focus

My global focus is improving the biomechanical understanding of the spine to enhance diagnostic and treatment methods associated with spinal disorders. My fundamental research focuses on the progression of back pain. I am researching new notions of how fascia, intra-muscular and intra-abdominal pressure play a role in spinal stability, from an engineering perspective, and I am also looking into the role of physiological stress shielding in spinal disorders. My applied research involves developing and validating a novel home diagnostic device to assist in an objective physical assessment of back pain patients via the non-invasive measure of tissue modulus and their muscular and abdominal pressures. At the other end of the back pain treatment spectrum for the surgical treatment of spinal disorders, I am developing a physics-based augmented reality spine surgical simulator with visual, audible and haptic feedback.

Selected Publications

Click on Pubmed to see my current publications list

  • Investigation of physiological stress shielding within lumbar spinal tissue as a contributor to unilateral low back pain: A finite element study. Newell, E., Driscoll, M. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 2021, 133, 104351.

  • Investigation of reaction forces in the thoracolumbar fascia during different activities: A mechanistic numerical study. El-Monajjed, K., Driscoll, M. Life, 2021, 11(8), 779.

  • Design Synthesis and Preliminary Evaluation of a Novel Tool to Noninvasively Characterize Pressurized, Physiological Vessels. Jacobson, N., Driscoll, M. Journal of Medical Devices, Transactions of the ASME, 2021, 15(2), 025001.

  • Utilizing a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network to assess a virtual reality surgical procedure. Alkadri, S., Ledwos, N., Mirchi, N., ...Driscoll, M., Del Maestro, R.F. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 2021, 136, 104770.

  • Development and validation of a timely and representative finite element human spine model for biomechanical simulations. El Bojairami, I., El-Monajjed, K., Driscoll, M. Scientific Reports, 2020, 10(1), 21519.