Digital Twins in Healthcare: Is It the Beginning of a New Era of Evidence-Based Medicine? A Critical Review

Digital Twins (DTs) are used in many different industries (e.g., manufacturing, construction, automotive, and aerospace), and there is an initial trend of applications in healthcare, mainly focusing on precision medicine. If their potential is fully unfolded, DTs will facilitate the as-yet-unrealized potential of connected care and alter the way lifestyle, health, wellness, and chronic disease will be managed in the future. To date, however, due to technical, regulatory and ethical roadblocks, there is no consensus as to what extent DTs in healthcare can introduce revolutionary applications in the next decade. In this review, we present the current applications of DTs covering multiple areas of healthcare (precision medicine, clinical trial design, and hospital operations) to identify the opportunities and the barriers that foster or hinder their larger and faster diffusion. Finally, we discuss the current findings, opportunities and barriers, and provide recommendations to facilitate the continuous development of DTs application in healthcare.

Authors

Patrizio Armeni; Irem Polat; Leonardo Maria De Rossi; Lorenzo Diaferia; Severino Meregalli; Anna Gatti

Published

Jul 30, 2022

Journal or venue

Journal of Personalized Medicine

DOI

10.3390/jpm12081255

Paper type

journal article

Source

Openalex