In the past, digital twins were used in manufacturing and aerospace to model and improve physical system performance. Today, we see this technology’s adoption in personalized medicine, which puts forth a picture of a future in which each patient is treated via very accurate, real-time virtual representations of their own body.
What are digital human twins?
A digital avatar of a person is a living virtual representation of an individual that presents physical and functional as well as behavioral traits. These models are updated in real time with information from wearables, medical imaging, genomics, and electronic health records also which as a whole makes the simulation a live and adaptive picture of the individual’s health that grows along with the person’s health status.
These virtual models we use to see how a person will react to that certain medicine, surgical process, or lifestyle change, which in turn allows us to present very personal and predictive health care solutions.
Applications in Personalized Medicine
- Tailored Treatment Plans
Digital twins are used to present different treatment options for a given patient, which in turn helps doctors to choose the best therapy with the least side effects. For example, in cancer care, a digital twin can be used to simulate tumor growth and to see how it responds to diverse chemotherapy or radiation protocols.
- Preventive Healthcare
Through continuous assessment of health markers, digital twins identify issues, which in turn allow for early interventive actions that may prevent the development of chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease.
- Drug Development and Testing
Pharmaceutical firms are using digital twins of humans in their virtual clinical trials. In these trials, which model large numbers of different digital patients, we see drug responses played out, which in turn is speeding up the drug development process and also improving safety, by which we are able to identify potential issues at the very start.
- Chronic Disease Management
Patients who have chronic conditions such as asthma, heart disease, or arthritis may see benefits from digital twins, which in turn help to adjust treatments as we go along. This, in the end, makes disease management more responsive and effective.
- Surgical Planning
Before performing complex surgeries, doctors use digital twins of patients, which in turn helps to identify possible complications and improve results.
The Technology Behind Human Digital Twins
Creating out of many advanced technologies is a human digital twin:
- AI and Machine Learning, which analyze large data sets to identify trends and predict results.
- IoT Devices and Wearable tech report in real time on heart rate, glucose levels, movement, and more.
- Genetic and biomarker analysis for tailored biological insights.
- 3D Model and Image data provide precise anatomical representations.
Ethical and Privacy Considerations
While there is great promise, human digital twins present key ethical issues. Issues of data privacy, consent, and security come to the fore, especially about health info. We see the need for regulatory frameworks that will, in turn, promote responsible use of these virtual models.
The Future of Digital Twin in Health Care.
As technology advances and data becomes available at an ever-growing rate, the human digital twin is moving out of the theoretical stage into clinical practice. In the near term, we will see that which is today’s care for health, in which doctors treat patients, will be augmented by doctors turning to virtual versions of their patients’ health profiles first.
Digital twins are what health care is taking to a very personal level, where care is tailored as per the needs of the individual patient, powered by data and AI, and which models the most complex machine we have, which is the human body.
