Are You Ready for the $21 Billion Digital Twin Revolution in Healthcare?

What is Digital Twin?

On April 13th, 1970, an explosion crippled Apollo 13 on its Lunar Mission when the spacecraft was with three astronauts on board and 249,205 miles away from Earth. With ingenuity and a physical replica of the spacecraft, NASA engineers devised a solution on Earth, guiding the astronauts to a safe return home. It never made it to the moon. Today, thanks to advanced computing, such physical replicas can be fully simulated digitally, creating "Digital Twins" (DT) that offer a revolutionary approach to testing and problem-solving.

One of the first definitions for DT as given by NASA was: “A Digital Twin is an integrated multiphysics, multiscale, probabilistic simulation of an as-built vehicle or system that uses the best available physical models, sensor updates, fleet history, etc., to mirror the life of its corresponding flying twin”.? Since then a lot has changed.?

In the late 90’s, Dr. Michael Grieves pioneered the concept of the "DoubleGanger" (later called the "Digital Twin"), envisioning its profound impact on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Beyond initial design and simulation, he imagined a future where digital tools and data seamlessly guide manufacturing, operation, maintenance, and even disposal.? Today with the advancement of Digital Technologies and Computational Power, simulating virtual objects, harvesting real-world data for virtual updates, and controlling physical objects through virtual replica interfaces became not just possible, but truly transformative. Thus, the Digital Twin ushered in a new era of design, manufacturing, and operations, unlocking its true potential across the entire Product Lifecycle.

While "Digital Twins" (DT) have burgeoned and rocketed to the top of tech trends, they're not magic bullets. Integration of DT with the technologies like Big Data Analytics, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), Deep Learning (DL), Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, AR/VR and Metaverse unlocked the DT’s true potential, paving the way for solving diverse research problems across various sectors. Think of it as building a data bridge between the real and digital, empowering solutions from both sides.

The impact of DT is ubiquitous, spanning industries as diverse as agriculture and automobiles, aerospace and manufacturing, medicine and real estate, retail and resource extraction (drilling, mining), to name a few. Their influence continues to grow, shaping everything from construction projects to mining operations to the future of medicine.

The creation of DTs enabled by Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has aided further in increasing system interconnectivity and simplifying the system optimization process to validate system characteristics early with engineers and stakeholders for fast feedback and design decisions.

Generative AI, is the creative spark behind ‘Digital Twins’ and ‘Digital Threads’, that is making them to shine and unleash this transformative potential to simulate, design, and build, with speed, ingenuity to optimize product design, solve problems, and ultimately bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds by bringing the interoperability of digital devices. And, ‘Generative Design’ aids in providing parameters to test alternative simulations. This disruptive transformation goes beyond futuristic concepts like the Metaverse or AR glasses.? Imagine collaborating with AI partners to design efficient products, troubleshoot complex systems, or personalize medical treatments – the possibilities are endless.

Is "Digital Twin" Just Tech Jargon? Another fancier name for ‘Data Modeling’ and / or ‘Simulation’?

Well, the answer to that is no, and here’s how.?

CAD design, BIM, and Data Modeling are different ways of making things on a computer before we make anything in the real world. They help you plan and design how the thing will look and work.?

Digital Twins (DT), which are 3D Digital Models with exact dimensions of the original object, are a whole different breed! Unlike ‘simulations’ built for fleeting scenarios, DT are ‘living replicas', constantly evolving alongside their real-world counterparts. Imagine them as dynamic mirrors, reflecting every change through a continuous flow of bi-directional data.

This "always-on" approach unlocks incredible possibilities. Take, for instance, a jet engine's digital twin, constantly learning from sensor data to predict potential issues and optimize performance. No more discarding models – these virtual companions continuously refine themselves, becoming invaluable partners in the real world.

The magic lies in the intricate link between physical and virtual. Data flows seamlessly, feeding the DT and allowing it to adjust its parameters, just like an athlete learning from each workout. It's not just a snapshot; it's a living, breathing reflection that empowers us to understand, predict, and ultimately, master real-world complexities.

The main difference between DT and the other methods is that DT is used after the thing is built, while the other methods are used before the thing is built.

DT can help you improve and maintain the thing, while the other methods can help you conceptualize and build the thing.

Medical Marvels in the Making: Can Digital Twins Heal the Future of Healthcare?

Envision a healthcare paradigm where personalized care aligns precisely with individual needs, delivering the right treatment at the optimal time. No longer a distant dream, Digital Twin technology is making this vision a reality. Imagine a virtual replica of your body, meticulously crafted down to the molecular level, capable of simulating therapeutic responses and guiding surgical & treatment planning with unparalleled precision. This groundbreaking approach empowers physicians to optimize care without subjecting patients to undue risk, heralding a new era of precision medicine. The realm of science fiction has yielded to a tangible revolution in healthcare, ushering in an era of unprecedented accuracy and patient empowerment.

Ditch the Star Trek movie style sci-fi fantasies of tricorders and holosuites for whole-body 3D scans. Digital Twins are here, creating your virtual replica for a real-time peek inside your body, taking healthcare to a whole new level.

DT technology is poised to disrupt healthcare delivery by leveraging real-time data integration, advanced analytics, and virtual simulations to enable Clinical Trials, Drug Discovery, enhance patient care through predictive analytics and personalized medicine, optimize clinical operations, and facilitate medical training and simulation.?

Areas of Application for ‘Digital Twin in Health’ (DTH):

The initial clinical application of Digital Twins surfaced in 2011, but the recent Covid-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the expansion of Digital Twin in Healthcare (DTH, also known as Health Digital Twin, HDT) since 2018. Currently, digital twins in healthcare are utilized to simulate the following entities:

• Medical facilities
• Medicine / Drugs
• Human organs or the entire human body
• Medical Devices

Digital twins are being innovatively designed to monitor and treat various medical conditions and systems such as the heart, airway system, brain aneurysms and their surrounding blood vessels, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis and more. They are also used to predict viral infections and immune responses or to aid in trauma management.

Clinical Trials and Drug Discovery

Beyond traditional Clinical Trials with animal and human subjects, ‘Digital Twins’ powered by RNA / DNA simulations offer researchers unparalleled flexibility and efficiency. Imagine simultaneously testing a new drug on countless virtual patients, adjusting variables on the fly, and exploring alternative approaches - all without ethical or logistical constraints. This empowers rapid development of lifesaving treatments, tackling the rising costs and limited access that currently plague the medical field. Digital Twins usher in a future where technology-driven trials revolutionize medical innovation, bringing safe, effective therapies to millions faster and more efficiently.

German innovator Virtonomy.io is revolutionizing Medical Device trials through ‘v-Patients’, virtual replicas of both humans and animals built on a data-driven platform. Utilizing digital twins, statistical analysis, and advanced simulations, they craft these virtual surrogates to precisely mimic real-world anatomical responses. This empowers Medical Equipment Manufacturers to replace traditional clinical evidence with robust digital evidence throughout the Product Life Cycle, leading to significant cost savings and resource efficiency.

Virtonomy's groundbreaking Digital Twin transformative approach reduces the regulatory hurdles also. This innovative solution caught the eye of Accenture, who invested in Virtonomy last year to accelerate medical device development for the benefit of patients worldwide.

Disease Treatment & Modeling

Neuropsychiatric disorders cripple millions, and effective solutions remain elusive. Enter the EU-funded 'NeuroTwin Project': a consortium of hospitals, researchers, and startups, building personalized brain models – digital twins – for patients at risk of Alzheimer's and ‘Epilepsy’. This ambitious effort aims to understand disease triggers, predict attacks, and ultimately, pave the way for a healthier future through personalized care.

AI-powered tumor analysis can design personalized agents to fight cancer, while predictive insights from digital twins can prevent future illnesses and optimize health management.? Initiatives like the UK's 100,000-genome project to sequence whole genomes from National Health Service’s 85,000 patients and the Mayo Clinic's Centre for Individualized Medicine are fueling this data-driven revolution, empowering scientists and technologists to unlock the secrets of health and turn prevention into a reality, not a dream.

Theranostics

Theranostic Digital Twins (TDTs) are amongst the most natural and feasible flavors of digitals twins.? Personalized Radiopharmaceutical Therapies (RPTs) will be deployed, including optimized intervention parameters. Examples include optimization of injected radioactivities, sites of injection, injection intervals and profiles, and combination therapies.

DTH fuels the advancement in cancer characterization methods and computational modeling. For oncology, these digital models aim to:?

a) Understand tumor properties.?

b) Predict tumor behavior and response to treatment.?

c) Personalize therapy options for each patient.

Medical imaging data like CT scans and MRIs provide crucial information for building and updating these tissue-scale digital twins.

Preventive Health Screening

Current Preventive Health Checkups, employing tests like blood analysis and X-ray, Mammography, CT scans, aim to catch health threats early, before symptoms arise.?

The Promise: valuable insights and early detection / intervention.?

The Reality: limitations like false positives, potential radiation exposure, limited test coverage, and the risk of missing fast-developing issues.?

This is where digital twins shine. Offering faster, safer full-body scans, DTs can provide a comprehensive picture of your health, delivering real-time data for accurate diagnosis and personalized prevention plans. A whole new level of preventive healthcare awaits.

US based Q.bio has developed a cutting-edge Digital Twin platform called ‘Q.bio Gemini’.? The software is powered by the ‘Q.Bio Mark I’ whole-body scanner that scans a person’s body in around 15 minutes without causing any risk of radiation or claustrophobia. This system then synthesizes the scan data with other data sources like lab tests, genetics, vitals, and personal lifestyle information and then creates your virtual replica. This virtual replica lets doctors:

• Understand your Unique Health: Q.bio Gemini goes beyond basic scans, offering a deeper understanding of your body's individual biochemistry, risks, and vulnerabilities.
• Predict Potential Issues: By continuously analyzing your data, Q.bio Gemini can even anticipate health changes and alert doctors to potential concerns before they become full-blown problems.
• Personalize Prevention and Treatment: Using your digital twin, doctors can tailor therapies and interventions specifically to your needs and risks, making healthcare proactive and preventive.

Personalized & Predictive Medicine

Personalized Medicine, powered by Digital Twins, promises a future of tailored treatments, not cookie-cutter approaches. Imagine care optimized for your unique genetic makeup, anatomy, and even behavior, lifestyle, ensuring higher quality and avoiding unfair disparities based on race or gender. Digital Twins, acting as virtual replicas, allow doctors to simulate how diseases impact your specific systems, guiding them to choose the most effective treatment plan and predict potential risks, empowering you to take control of your health journey.

DNA, the blueprint of life, holds the key to personalized medicine with digital twins. These virtual replicas, crafted from an individual's unique genetic code, pave the way for personalized treatment plans and proactive prevention of future health issues. While still in its early stages, this technology is already revolutionizing medical and surgical practices through virtual trials for enhanced patient safety.

Predictiv, a US-based startup with CLIA certified Lab, leverages this potential by predicting serious and genetic disorders using DNA-based digital twins. Simply providing a fingernail sample (that’s right), allows them to build your virtual counterpart and generate a customized report outlining your genetic risks and personalized preventative healthcare plans.

Surgery Planning

Imagine a virtual rehearsal for your surgery, where surgeons strategize, practice, and refine the procedure on your digital twin. This future, thanks to surgical digital twins, minimizes risks and maximizes success. Precise patient models guide multidisciplinary planning, allowing doctors to rehearse in simulators and consult the virtual replica during surgery, preventing potential errors and optimizing implant placement.?

A cerebral aneurysm is a possibly life-threatening occurrence. France based Sim&Cure, using digital twins and simulations developed innovative technology to help neurosurgeons treat potentially fatal cerebral aneurysms with unparalleled precision and safety.

Aortic aneurysms, deadly bulges in arteries, often require multiple risky CT, MRI scans for examination, treatment and surgical planning.?

French startup NUREA's software builds patient-specific vascular twins from CT scans, allowing surgeons to visualize and understand the aneurysm's progression through detailed 3D models. This empowers them to make earlier treatment decisions, potentially preventing the disease from becoming critical.

But the benefits go beyond diagnosis. Medical implants, like stent-grafts, can be tricky, with slight variations affecting success.?

Another French startup PrediSurge tackles this by creating 3D simulations of patient anatomies using pre-operative imaging. Surgeons can then test different implants virtually, predicting outcomes and choosing the one most likely to optimize treatment and deliver customized care.

EchoPixel’s FDA-approved Holographic Therapy Guidance (HTG) creates a real-time 4D hologram of a patient’s heart from standard medical images, simplifying procedures. This allows more operators and heart centers to deliver minimally invasive therapies with greater precision and control.

These are just two examples of how digital twins are transforming CardioVascular Care. By offering greater precision, earlier intervention, and personalized solutions, these virtual replicas are paving the way for a healthier future for heart patients.

Hospital Operations & Facilities Management

Imagine a Hospital where virtual models predict bed needs, optimize workflows, and even prepare for emergencies. By leveraging real-time and historical data, Hospital Operations team can:

• Optimize Resource Allocation: Digital Twins simulate patient flow and staff utilization, pinpointing areas for improvement. This data-driven approach ensures efficient use of beds, equipment, and personnel.
• Boost Operational Efficiency: Simulations help fine-tune daily operations, from scheduling to workflow optimization. This translates to smoother patient care and reduced administrative burdens.
• Prepare for the unexpected: From epidemics to natural disasters, digital twins can model critical scenarios and develop effective response strategies, ensuring the hospital's readiness for any challenge.

UCSF Health, has partnered with IBM to optimize the management of existing health facilities. This included a total of three million square feet and approximately 53,000 equipment assets. And UCSF has already started reaping the benefits of Digital Twins.

The Radiology Department of Mater Private Hospital, a leading Irish hospital, with the help of Siemens Heatlhineers used a Digital Twin Model to optimize the Clinical Operations resulting in shorter wait times for patients, faster patient turnaround, increased equipment utilization, lowered staff costs.?

Launched a Capacity Command Center to enhance Hospital Operations with the partnership of GE Healthcare’s Hospital of the Future (HoF) Simulation Suite that resulted in enhanced patient safety and experience, optimized patient volume and flow, and improved the ability to accept complex cases from other hospitals.

French pharma giant Sanofi is taking vaccine manufacturing to the next level with "EVolutive Facilities" – a pair of cutting-edge plants in Singapore and France powered by DT. Imagine virtual replicas of these facilities, complete with equipment and production processes, continuously learning and optimizing in real-time. Before a single brick is laid, Sanofi can test different layouts, tweak equipment settings, and validate production processes, ensuring smooth, efficient vaccine manufacturing from day one. This futuristic approach eliminates costly mistakes and delays, ultimately accelerating the delivery of life-saving vaccines to patients worldwide.

Medical Device Development & Maintenance

Digital Twins can be made of medical devices to help engineers and other specialists see in detail how components function. Then, they can evaluate how the device will perform under various conditions, such as network overload, power cuts, hacking attempts, etc.

Imagine simulating every scenario including design, development, maintenance and Product Life Cycle (PLC) before even manufacturing a single medical device.? This hyper-realistic testing environment allows Medical Device Manufacturers to:

• Optimize Performance: Predict potential glitches and proactively refine designs, ensuring seamless device operation across diverse conditions.
• Boost Patient Safety: Identify and mitigate unforeseen failure points before the device reaches humans, leading to safer, more reliable treatments.
• Extend Device Lifespan: By mimicking real-time wear and tear, digital twins can guide preventative maintenance, reducing device downtime and saving healthcare costs.

Medical Technology giants like GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers and Philips have developed DT platforms for real-time monitoring, inspection and maintenance

Siemens has developed Digital Twin solutions to accelerate Medical Device Product Development that provide benefits of: real-time visualization, Minimized risk, Ramp up time to market and Reduced downtime.

During the covid-19 pandemic, hospitals across the globe faced a ventilator shortage. Siemens addressed this challenge by leveraging simulation and building an executable digital twin (xDT) Model, that speeded up innovation processes, resulting in rapid design enhancements, prototyping and validation of medical devices.

Stryker, a US medical technology giant, is using digital twins to improve the design and manufacturing of medical devices including prosthetics and implants especially to identify potential problems with these devices' designs before they are released to the factory floor. It is also leveraging digital twins to monitor implant performance and predict potential malfunctions, enabling preventative interventions.

Patient Remote Monitoring

Digital twins combined with IoT-powered devices like wearables enable real-time monitoring, allowing healthcare professionals to notice changes in patients’ states immediately.

Predictive analysis through simulation allows real-time monitoring by Doctors for detecting symptoms at an early stage, and especially with some illnesses, preventing and recognising diseases at the right time.??

Market Potential, Key Players and Future of DTH?

In particular, digital twins in healthcare were estimated to be worth about $1.6 billion in 2023. Experts in this industry expect significant growth in 2028, when the market will be worth over $21.1 billion.

The Asia Pacific (APAC) region is poised to experience a significant growth in the Digital Twins in Healthcare Market. Several factors contribute to this, including the increasing trend of medical tourism, growing investments that attract new market participants, the prevalence of various cutting-edge technologies like IoT and machine learning, and a rising geriatric population. All these elements combine to drive the development of digital twins for healthcare applications in the APAC region.

Several major players are shaping the Digital Twins in the Healthcare Market.?

The Future - A Blossoming Ecosystem of Healthcare Digital Twin?

The surging adoption of DTH unveils a tapestry of lucrative opportunities for diverse stakeholders. As healthcare providers recognize the transformative potential of this technology, a vibrant ecosystem blossoms.

• Consultants can guide hospitals in strategizing, implementing, and optimizing their digital twin journeys.?
• IoT Device Manufacturers gear up to meet the surging demand for data-gathering sensors.?
• AI and Machine Learning specialists offer bespoke solutions for interpreting the vast data streams, while cloud computing and analytics providers build robust infrastructure to manage the information deluge.
• Telemedicine and remote monitoring companies find their sweet spot in enabling virtual patient management, fostering improved care and reduced costs.?
• Medical Device Manufacturers explore integrating digital twins to monitor and optimize their products' performance.?
• Academic and Research Collaborations fuel groundbreaking advancements
• Innovative Startups carve niches by tackling specific healthcare challenges with tailor-made digital twin solutions.

The burgeoning ecosystem of Healthcare Digital Twin technology is poised to usher in a new era of medical innovation, paving the way for enhanced patient care, superior device performance, and pioneering breakthroughs.