Dr Alice Byram
Emergency and Family Medicine Physician. Founder and CEO of TwinVita. President of the Digital Health Section of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Digital twins are emerging as one of healthcare’s most talked-about technologies, but their greatest potential may lie in helping people live healthier, longer lives.
Most people have never heard of a digital twin, despite growing excitement about its potential in healthcare.
What is a digital twin?
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine describes a digital twin as a virtual representation of a person or system that’s continuously updated using real-world data to help simulate, predict or guide decisions.
In healthcare, this translates to bringing information from wearables, smartphones, medical devices and health records to create a better picture of the individual’s health over time with their own data. Instead of relying only on occasional appointments or test results, digital health tools could help identify subtle changes earlier and predict health outcomes based on changes in treatments or behaviour.
Much of the conversation has focused on disease, yet their greatest potential may lie in prevention, healthy ageing and helping people stay well for longer.
Wearables can already track sleep, movement, recovery, heart rate and stress patterns. The next step is understanding what they mean.
Future of digital twins
A future digital twin won’t simply monitor activity or sleep quality but recognise when changes in routines, mobility or social interaction suggest someone may need support before becoming unwell.
Research is increasingly pointing to the role of connection, purpose and emotional wellbeing in long-term health outcomes. The US Surgeon General warns that social disconnection carries health risks comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
Much of the conversation has focused on disease, yet their greatest potential may lie in prevention,
healthy ageing and helping people stay well for longer
There’s also a wider shift from STEM towards STEAM, recognising the importance of the arts alongside science and technology. Research led by Daisy Fancourt has linked cultural engagement with healthier ageing, improved wellbeing and even longevity. These data points must also be incorporated into digital twins.
Digital health innovation also carries risks. If digital twins are trained on narrow datasets or on the wrong variables, they risk reproducing those same inequalities at scale. We now have an opportunity to build digital health systems that are not only smarter, but fairer, more preventative and more human.
