aNETomy™ , a new model for the teaching and study of functional biomechanics / Symposium A

The teaching of biomechanics is often based on linear models even in osteopathic schools. Usually biomechanical models are classified as anthropomorphic (also called skeletal) or functional models. Visually skeletal models resemble the construction of the human body: body segments are modelled as solid links while human joints as the joints of the model itself. In functional models, instead, the body segments are modelled as nodes on a graph whereas the joints as arcs connecting the nodes. Despite its overly simplistic view of the human biomechanics, the skeletal model is conventionally used in the teaching of biomechanics and kinematic chains. Conversely, the functional model proposes a much more realistic view of the biomechanics function, yet it is almost ignored in osteopathic education. The nonlinearity is a functional feature of any complex system, including the human body and the subsystems that comprise it. Non linearity manifests itself through a specific structural organization defined as NETWORK. The need of a biomechanical model able to highlight the complexity of all possible correlations between anatomical parts of the locomotion system has led to the creation of aNETomy™: an anatomical network composed of 2296 nodes (anatomical parts) and 7197 links (anatomical connections through the parts). Using aNETomy© is possible to perform a functional analysis of the anatomical network together with illustrating (teaching) its mechanical complexity (tensegrity). Moreover, these innovations have been able to bring out new treatment approaches, beside the advantage of making more simple and intuitive the learning process of biomechanics complexity.

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Daniele Della Posta Osteopath and Physiotherapist was born on 16/05/1965 in Rome, where he lives and works. Lecturer at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the School of Osteopathy CROMON of Rome.
Expert of Biological Complexity and Networks, has designed and developed the software aNETomy© to study and analyse the biomechanical complexity.