Tethered cord syndrome arises when traction on the conus medullaris distorts neural signalling. AURORA-TC focuses on the biomechanics of tension, phenotype clustering and the timing of surgical release.
A non-functional preview of the AURORA-TC surface. Composable panels, logged overrides, explainable end-to-end. Pilot sites tune this to their own workflow.
TCS-SIGNAL Signal Transduction78%TCS-PHENOTYPE Phenotype Atlas65%TCS-RELEASE Release Planning71%TCS-PROTECT Re-tether Protection52%AURORA-TC is an open stack for tethered cord syndrome — a diagnostic grey zone where small timing errors cost decades. Four subsystems model tension biomechanics, cluster phenotypes, score release-timing risk, and watch for re-tether.
Tethered cord syndrome straddles a diagnostic grey zone. Symptoms range from bladder dysfunction to back pain, imaging is often equivocal, and the cost of timing wrong — early or late — is high in both directions. AURORA-TC is built around the biomechanics of tension and the evidence base for release.
Occult tight filum cases are particularly contested. AURORA-TC does not resolve that debate; it surfaces the signals — tension fields, urodynamic trajectories, conus position — with explicit uncertainty bands so the team can decide. Adult-onset cases sit on the same substrate, with different priors.
The four subsystems compose: signal transduction feeds the phenotype atlas, the phenotype atlas feeds release planning, and re-tether watch closes the loop with longitudinal follow-up.
We are not building a product around Tethered Cord. We are seeding an infrastructure — so that any hospital with the will to use it can.
AURORA-TC models stretch-evoked axonal stress along the conus medullaris. Release is timed when predicted tension crosses the threshold band — not before, not after. Most occult tethered cords AURORA flags will not need surgery this year.
Every AURORA-TC subsystem can be adopted alone or as part of the bundle. Each ships with its own model cards, eval results and a one-command install.
Stretch-evoked axonal ion-flux and metabolic deficit modelling.
Stretch-evoked axonal ion-flux and metabolic-deficit model. Outputs a tension field used by every downstream subsystem.
Occult vs. classical TCS clustering across paediatric and adult cohorts.
Cohort-scale clustering of occult vs. classical vs. adult-onset TCS. Open data + federation-friendly.
Risk-adjusted decision support for de-tethering surgery.
Risk-adjusted decision support for de-tethering surgery, including paediatric and adult priors.
Post-op tracking and re-tether early-warning indicators.
Post-op re-tether early warning, longitudinal urodynamic and motor surveillance.
Inputs the module reads from your existing systems, outputs it returns to them, the protocols it speaks, and the lifecycle of one case as it moves through AURORA-TC.
Stretch-evoked axonal ion-flux and metabolic-deficit model. Outputs a tension field used by every downstream subsystem.
Cohort-scale clustering of occult vs. classical vs. adult-onset TCS. Open data + federation-friendly.
Risk-adjusted decision support for de-tethering surgery, including paediatric and adult priors.
Post-op re-tether early warning, longitudinal urodynamic and motor surveillance.
4 drafts by the module team and pilot collaborators. Each documents one slice of the substrate — methods, evaluation protocol, lessons. Slot PDFs in as they're ready; the entries point to placeholders until then.
These are the endpoints AURORA-TC is built to measure across pilot deployments. The targets below are pilot goals, not retrospective results.
Across multi-site retrospective cohorts (target).
Improvement in continence scoring post-release.
Median lead time before clinical confirmation.
Validated against patient-reported outcomes.
Every clinician override logged with reason.
Reduction in releases later judged unnecessary.
pip install to a hospital deploy in one afternoon.Available to pilot partners today on private registries. At public alpha (Q4 2026) the same images, weights and signatures ship under MIT on public registries. For the full per-product download grid, see the unified download page.
pip install aurora-tc
aurora doctor tc # → AURORA-TC ✓ python ✓ models ✓ benchmarks # → ready in target ≤100ms
from aurora.tc import score_release out = score_release(case_id="bench/tc/case-0006") print(out.recommendation_band) # → "consider release · 0.62" print(out.tension_field.shape) # → (256, 256, 96)
AURORA-TC is designed to run on hardware that already exists inside hospital networks. CPU-only inference is supported for the lighter subsystems; the heavier ones benefit from a recent GPU but do not require one. A single modern workstation handles routine cases under the latency target.
Federated deploys do not require open inbound ports. The runtime opens an outbound mTLS connection to the federation control plane; model updates are signed, audited and pulled. Patient data never traverses the federation. Consent metadata is a first-class object — subsystems with an explicit consent dependency refuse to run on records that lack the appropriate cohort policy.
Most pilot sites land on AURORA-TC with an existing system in place. The recommended path is: install alongside, compare outputs on a held-out cohort for one quarter, then move read-only surfaces to AURORA, and decide on the rest. Reversibility is a design goal — nothing in the install creates lock-in.
For the full per-product, per-platform download buttons (macOS / Windows / Linux installers + pip / docker / helm / rust commands), see the unified download page. Each subsystem of AURORA-TC is independently downloadable there.
AURORA is in private pilot today and opens to the world at public alpha in Q4 2026 under MIT. If you carry the weight of these diseases — as a clinician, scientist, builder, patient or advocate — there is a seat at the table.