Concepts and applications of digital twins in healthcare and medicine

Kang Zhang; Hong-Yu Zhou; Daniel T Baptista-Hon; Yuanxu Gao; Xiaohong Liu; Eric Oermann; Sheng Xu; Shengwei Jin; Jian Zhang; Zhuo Sun; Yun Yin; Ronald M Razmi; Alexandre Loupy; Stephan Beck; Jia Qu; Joseph Wu; International Consortium of Digital Twins in Medicine

doi:10.1016/j.patter.2024.101028

Concepts and applications of digital twins in healthcare and medicine

Patterns (N Y). 2024 Aug 9;5(8):101028. doi: 10.1016/j.patter.2024.101028.

Authors

Kang Zhang^{1

2

3

4}, Hong-Yu Zhou⁵, Daniel T Baptista-Hon^{3

6}, Yuanxu Gao⁷, Xiaohong Liu⁸, Eric Oermann⁹, Sheng Xu¹⁰, Shengwei Jin^{2

11}, Jian Zhang^{1

11}, Zhuo Sun⁴, Yun Yin¹², Ronald M Razmi¹³, Alexandre Loupy¹⁴, Stephan Beck⁸, Jia Qu^{1

2}, Joseph Wu¹⁵; International Consortium of Digital Twins in Medicine

Affiliations

¹ National Clinical Eye Research Center, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China.
² Institute for Clinical Data Science, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China.
³ Institute for AI in Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau 999078, China.
⁴ Institute for Advanced Study on Eye Health and Diseases, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02138, USA.
⁶ School of Medicine, University of Dundee, DD1 9SY Dundee, UK.
⁷ Department of Big Data and Biomedical AI, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100000, China.
⁸ Cancer Institute, University College London, WC1E 6BT London, UK.
⁹ NYU Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York, NY 10016, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Chemical Engineering and Nanoengineering, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
¹¹ Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China.
¹² Faculty of Business and Health Science Institute, City University of Macau, Macau 999078, China.
¹³ Zoi Capital, New York, NY 10013, USA.
¹⁴ Université Paris Cité, INSERM U970 PARCC, Paris Institute for Transplantation and Organ Regeneration, 75015 Paris, France.
¹⁵ Cardiovascular Research Institute, Stanford University, Standford, CA 94305, USA.

Abstract

The digital twin (DT) is a concept widely used in industry to create digital replicas of physical objects or systems. The dynamic, bi-directional link between the physical entity and its digital counterpart enables a real-time update of the digital entity. It can predict perturbations related to the physical object's function. The obvious applications of DTs in healthcare and medicine are extremely attractive prospects that have the potential to revolutionize patient diagnosis and treatment. However, challenges including technical obstacles, biological heterogeneity, and ethical considerations make it difficult to achieve the desired goal. Advances in multi-modal deep learning methods, embodied AI agents, and the metaverse may mitigate some difficulties. Here, we discuss the basic concepts underlying DTs, the requirements for implementing DTs in medicine, and their current and potential healthcare uses. We also provide our perspective on five hallmarks for a healthcare DT system to advance research in this field.

Publication types

Review