Knowing in advance whether a treatment will be effective, or even predict whether you will fall ill and which treatment is needed to prevent that? The development of the Human Digital Twin should make this possible.
The percentage of patients for whom medication isn’t effective is between 20% and 75%. In the US, 2,2 million unintended responses to medication were reported, including over 100,000 deaths[1]. Underlying this is the fact that every person is genetically unique, which means medication has a different effect on everyone. This could mean that medication or treatments that are effective for a large subset of the population, do not have the required effect on an individual, or can even be harmful. The problem is that it isn’t known in advance what the effect of the medication or treatment will be. The Human Digital Twin can offer a solution to this[2].
A Human Digital Twin is a digital copy of an individual, a computer-based model, on which you can test every medication or treatment, and which can determine in advance which treatment will be effective for the patient. Medication can be tested in the model in an accelerated way in order to assess its effectiveness and the optimal dose. Unnecessary costs and complications are thus prevented. The digital copy can also be used for preventative diagnostics. On the one side by thoroughly analysing someone’s body digitally and recognising afflictions in an earlier stage. On the other side by ‘monitoring’ a Human Digital Twin in order to assess the risk of afflictions to the patient. The Digital Twin thus functions as a kind of avatar that provides very personalised advice in order to maintain an optimal health. The Human Digital Twin is part of the movement towards personalised medicine[3].
The idea of such a ‘twin’ isn’t new. In 1970, an oxygen tank exploded on the Apollo-13 spaceshuttle: ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’. With the help of a replica in Houston, NASA employees on the ground could recreate the situation and find a solution[4,5]. In the meantime, the Digital Twin is commonplace in multiple industries, including aviation. Virtually every jet engine of a modern aeroplane has a digital copy on the ground. This ensures maintenance is more preventative, precise, and effective.
A complete Human Digital Twin is still a pipe dream,, but digital copies of individual organs are now in development at companies such as Philips and Siemens[5,6]. An example of this is a copy of the heart, developed by Siemens Healthineers. This digital heart simulates the electrical and physical movements of the heart. With this, a pacemaker can be placed ‘digitally’, after which the best location for the pacemaker’s placement can be determined by running simulations, even before the first incision is made[7]. Another example is a model which was developed to improve achievements of top athletes. Using wearables and daily input from the athlete, this Digital Twin receives information about sleep, ingested nutrients and movement. With this information, the model is able to predict sporting achievements and, in case of suboptimal achievements, make suggestions concerning sleep, nutrition, and physical activity, in order to improve the achievements[8].
Essential for the creation of a Human Digital Twin is the collection of data. After all, the more individual and detailed data is available, the more precise the model and the more targeted the model can be used. Therefore, the further development of the Internet of Things and devices such as wearables, smart textiles, and implantables that continuously collect information about health is essential[2]. Another challenge is the enormous processing power required to model the complexity of the human body[9].
Although we’re currently only modelling organs, a complete Human Digital Twin could predict if a patient will fall ill weeks or months in advance, and which treatment is necessary to prevent this. This could mean a true revolution in modern medicine[5].
Referenties
- Spear et al., Realizing the Potential of Pharmacogenomics: Opportunities and Challenges, Washington Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society, May 2008.
- The Medical Futurist, Digital Twins and the Promise of Personalized Medicine, March 2020. [Available from: https://medicalfuturist.com/digital-twin-and-the-promise-of-personalized-medicine]
- Björnsson, B., Borrebaeck, C., Elander, N. et al. Digital twins to personalize medicine. Genome Med 12, 4, 2020.
- Stephen Fergusen, Apollo 13: The First Digital Twin, April 14 2020. [Available from https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/simcenter/apollo-13-the-first-digital-twin/
- Mail Online, The 3D printed ‘digital twin’ of your heart that could save your life: AI system lets surgeons simulate, 2018. [Available from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6117623/Medtech-firms-gets-personal-digital-twins.html]
- Philips, 3D printed ‘digital twin’ of your heart that could save your life: AI system lets surgeons simulate, 12 November 2018. [Available from: https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/blogs/innovation-matters/20181112-how-a-virtual-heart-could-save-your-real-one.html
- Kai Tubesing, Siemens makes digital hearts beat faster, 12 Sep. 2018. [Available from: https://www.hannovermesse.de/en/news/news-articles/siemens-makes-digital-hearts-beat-faster]
- Barricelli, B. R., Casiraghi, E., Gliozzo, J., Petrini, A., & Valtolina, S. Human Digital Twin for Fitness Management. IEEE Access, 8, 26637-26664, 2020.
- Dr. Eng Lim Goh, How Digital Twins of the Human Body Can Advance Healthcare, July 09, 2018. [Available from: https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/blog-post/2018/07/how-digital-twins-of-the-human-body-can-advance-healthcare.html]