Digital Twins in Medicine & Research---Further Along than Many Realize, But A Ways to Go

Digital twins? Say what? Is this yet another pie in the sky trend that hasn’t hit the Gartner hype cycle “Peak of Inflated Expectations” let alone “Trough of Disillusionment” yet? Well, this concept seems to be gaining quite a bit of momentum in the real world despite challenges with seamless execution today. Nonetheless, with great strides in technology, process and medical engineering, gaps aside, the digital twin patient concept packs transformative impact in real world use scenarios. Still, a few years away from prime time, distilling the concept down to its core, digital twins in medical or healthcare literally means that a digital version, model or representation exists of say, a person in order to replicate the make-up, nuances and actions of that person’s real-world counterpart. An account published recently by the National Academy of Sciences  suggests the concept has taken off far more than most may realize, less attention on the aforementioned hype cycle.

In “Foundational Research Gaps and Future Direction for Digital Twins,” the author, Dr. Karen Willcox at the University of Texas at Austin, first establishes the value proposition for the concept, poisoning the exponential value add positioned for healthcare, transformation in nature and affect, enabling access more detailed, profound insights on patient care.