Digital Twin in Health Sector

Technology advances now allow ‘copying’ our reality to virtual worlds, and it is one of the most trendy concepts, often related to the word digital twin. Big tech organisations and companies are focusing on creating as accurate as possible replicas of the world we live in and other physical things. Technologies like IoT, AI, VR, sensors, 3D printing, and metaverse open up more opportunities for new development in the health sector.

Digital twins are dimensionally-exact 3D digital models that can be swiftly updated to reflect changes with their physical counterparts. The growth of this technology is made possibly by artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. Therefore, the digital twin is popular in engineering applications as a mainly manufacturing concept. We have written about the digital twin and its importance in industry already, but today, the focus is fully on digital twins in the healthcare and medical sectors.

How Does Digitalisation Improve Healthcare?

In the healthcare industry, the list of digital twin advantages is already unbelievable and still growing. From creating a virtual model of a person's body, even down to the molecular level, to deciding which surgical procedure would be most effective or being capable of anticipating a patient's response to experimental therapies without putting their lives at risk, digital twins can offer a safe setting for testing how modifications will affect a system's performance. They allow for evaluation and monitoring without being nearby. Problems can be foreseen before they occur, giving time to make the necessary adjustments or follow the proper procedures.

More Personalised Medicine

Personalised medicine, also called precision medicine, allows for easier tailoring of medical treatments to individuals based on their particular genetic makeup, anatomy, behaviour, and other aspects. Precision medicine is gaining popularity as it satisfies specific individuals' needs according to medical decisions and therapies. It is made possible by digital twins. How? Digital twins create the potential to build a more personalised medicine, and below you can find some examples:

Virtual Organs

Digital twins are being used in medicine to replicate the real body, and create virtual and customisable organ models. In order to assess the evolution of diseases over time or the response to new medications, therapies, or surgical interventions, several companies have been working on virtual hearts that can be tailored to individual patients and updated.

For example, Philips created a Dynamic HeartModel, a clinical tool that enables cardiologists to evaluate various heart functions important for the diagnosis and care of patients with CVD.

Tommaso Mansi and his research team at Siemens Healthineers have been developing a computational model of a digital heart that is accessible on a computer. This is a prototype that definitely revolutionises precision medicine. The objective is to make it possible for the doctor to employ the digital twin's predictive guidance in real-time while performing a surgery, potentially boosting the number of patients who could benefit from the therapy.

Also, European firm FEops has already launched the Heartguide platform, where virtual copies of the heart or its substructures are created from cardiac scans using cutting-edge technology. Through the use of this technology, FEops hopes to enhance and broaden the tailored care for patients with structural heart disease.

Body Scanning

If you have seen Star Trek and you remember a body scanner that can create a 3D computerised representation of your body to monitor your health, now the science fiction movie vision has become a reality. Jeff Kaditz, an American start-up CEO, designed Q Bio Gemini, the first digital twin platform to scan the whole body. According to the company's website, its advanced computational physics models, which are more accurate than traditional MRI for many illnesses, can record a whole-body scan in 15 minutes without the use of radiation or breath holds.

Patient Data

A patient's health information, including medical records, the results of diagnostic tests and examinations, a history of prescription medications, and data from wearables and other sources, can be gathered and stored to construct a digital twin of the patient.

Therefore, there are more and more apps that help keep track of a person's health changes throughout time. Wearable sensors and cutting-edge algorithms can anticipate the beginning of infection, inflammation, and insulin resistance. For more information about wearables, check out this article . Wearable technology gives some insights into heart rate, physical activity, skin temperature, and other health data. The digital twin might be used to identify changes in health status and possible dangers that call for additional research when paired with pre-existing information about illness progression and data analysis.

Digital Twin Simulations

Digital twin simulation enables the virtual representation of models that can create data to help in research and development. This technique is very important in healthcare as it allows medical personnel to predict the outcome before selecting treatment or therapy. With a virtual representation, it is possible to determine which treatment or solution would be best for a patient by testing it first on a digital replica of their body or organ, rather than on the patient themselves.

Digital Twin in Surgery

The idea behind a surgical digital twin is that a patient model is built, and surgery may be planned in a multidisciplinary team conference, practised beforehand in a simulator, and referred to during the operation to check anatomy and minimise unintended structural damage. Such methods can help prevent the errors that could occur during an operation and allow doctors to prepare better for what will happen.

Patient Monitoring

Predictive analysis through simulation allows for detecting symptoms at an early stage. With some illnesses, preventing and recognising diseases at the right time might save someone’s life. Thanks to the digital twin assistance, doctors have real-time access to information.

How Does the Digital Twin Continue to Evolve in Healthcare?

The examples highlighted within this article are only a few, intended to show how digital twin technology helps with the diagnosis and treatment of serious illnesses. Digital twin research focuses on particular situations or ailments, such as cancer, heart trouble, and critical care, as well as in general helping with patients' medical records, laboratory results, genetic data, optimal decision-making, and simulating various scenarios before implementation in the real world.

Technologies such as AI, machine learning, 3D modelling, and predictive analytics are key for effective digital twins and creating accurate data models. Also, with the protection of patient data and integration, as well as the evaluation of IoT-enabled devices and improved monitoring of healthcare facilities, digital twins have become an important factor in the development. Still, they will evolve in the medical sector focusing on Software-as-a-Medical-Service. This will increase the popular appeal of digital twins and make the technology more viable for healthcare organisations.

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All content in this article is for informational and educational purposes only, and does not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals.