Cedara Software Corp. has introduced new tool for spine specialists that is a speedier alternative than current manual methods for analyzing the spine, the company said.

Cedara's OrthoWorks Spine Analyzer detects the bone contours and measurements of the spinal vertebrae for cervical, lumbar, postural and frontal analysis in just a few mouse clicks. More than 500 x-ray based spine parameters - including functional range of motion, mean centers of vertebral rotation, lordosis, and kyphosis -are available in Spine Analyzer's graphical display. The system's semi-automated spinal vertebra anatomy detection feature simplifies planning and allows standard spinal measurements to be applied in less time.

OrthoWorks Spine Analyzer is part of Cedara's family of OrthoWorks planning tools for Orthopaedics. The Spine Analyzer options integrates with Cedara's clinical knowledge management system, Cedara OrthoWorks Care Manager, which automatically populates data fields into a central repository so that clinical data can be data mined, organized, and easily shared and exchanged remotely.

OrthoWorks Spine Analyzer also shares data with Cedara's OrthoWorksplanning module, which is used to load and review images, as well as plan surgical procedures such as rod, screw and implant sizes.