Stanford Interventional Pain Atlas
A training instrument. Read this before using it, and read it as written rather than as the formality it resembles.
A simulation is not a patient
Everything on the stage is a model. The anatomy is derived from a single CT of a single person and is accurate to that person, not to yours; the needles, instruments and implants are authored to published dimensions rather than measured from devices; the fluoroscopic and ultrasound views are computed approximations of what those machines produce, not recordings of them. Tissue does not deform here, blood does not obscure anything, and nothing ever goes wrong on its own.
This atlas can be wrong. Coordinates, courses, depths, trajectories and text may contain errors. Anatomy and procedure details have been reviewed by clinicians but may still contain errors or outdated information. Where you find a disagreement between this software and a textbook, an attending, or the patient in front of you, this software is not the authority.
It covers a fraction of the field
The catalogue holds a small number of procedures in a small number of regions. Techniques absent from it are not thereby inadvisable, obsolete, or unnecessary — most simply have not been built yet. Alternatives, contraindications, comparative evidence and the non-procedural management that should usually come first are largely outside its scope. Do not read this atlas as a statement of what the field contains or of what a patient should be offered.
Competence and patient safety remain yours
Nothing here confers competency, privileges, or credentials, and time spent in it is not training in any sense a programme or a licensing body recognises. The clinician performing a procedure is responsible for their own competence to perform it, for supervision, consent, patient selection, imaging, technique and aftercare, and for every consequence that follows. Use this to rehearse and to think, never to decide.
Not a medical device, and not clinical advice
This software is not a medical device, has been cleared or approved by no regulator, and is not for diagnosis, treatment planning, procedural guidance, or use at the point of care. Do not use it in the presence of a patient to determine what to do.
Provenance, and what it is not
The imaging is from a public, openly licensed research dataset. It contains no patient data and no protected health information, and none should ever be entered into it. Instruments and implants reproduce a class of device and are unbranded: they are not manufactured to any maker’s specification, and nothing here is affiliated with, endorsed by, or a substitute for a manufacturer’s instructions for use.
No warranty
Provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose. To the fullest extent the law allows, no liability is accepted for any harm arising from its use. If something here looks wrong, it may well be — please report it rather than work around it.
Continuing means you have read this, that you are using the atlas for training, and that clinical responsibility rests with you.