How Can 'Digital Twins' Determine Right Treatment for Patients?

What a 'digital twin' does is using your personal data. (Shutterstock)
What a 'digital twin' does is using your personal data. (Shutterstock)
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How Can 'Digital Twins' Determine Right Treatment for Patients?

What a 'digital twin' does is using your personal data. (Shutterstock)
What a 'digital twin' does is using your personal data. (Shutterstock)

Research is growing into computational models that will move medicine beyond what works on the average patient. Imagine having a digital twin that gets ill, and can be experimented on to identify the best possible treatment, without you having to go near a pill or a surgeon’s knife.

According to The Guardian, scientists believe that within five to 10 years, “in silico” trials – in which hundreds of virtual organs are used to assess the safety and efficacy of drugs – could become routine, while patient-specific organ models could be used to personalize treatment and avoid medical complications.

Digital twins are computational models of physical objects or processes, updated using data from their real-world counterparts. Within medicine, this means combining vast amounts of data about the workings of genes, proteins, cells and whole-body systems with patients’ personal data to create virtual models of their organs – and eventually, potentially their entire body.

“If you practice medicine today, a lot of it isn’t very scientific. Often, it is equivalent to driving a car and working out where to go next by looking in the rear-view mirror: you try to figure out how to treat the patient in front of you based on people you’ve seen in the past who had similar conditions,” said Prof. Peter Coveney, the director of the Centre for Computational Science at University College London and co-author of Virtual You.

“What a digital twin is doing is using your data inside a model that represents how your physiology and pathology is working. It is not making decisions about you based on a population that might be completely unrepresentative. It is genuinely personalized,” he added.

The current state of the art model can be found in cardiology. Already, companies are using patient-specific heart models to help design medical devices, while the Barcelona-based start-up ELEM BioTech is offering companies the ability to test drugs and devices on simulated models of human hearts.



Hail Toyota International Rally 2025 Activities Start Tomorrow

The eight-day program features 20 events - SPA
The eight-day program features 20 events - SPA
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Hail Toyota International Rally 2025 Activities Start Tomorrow

The eight-day program features 20 events - SPA
The eight-day program features 20 events - SPA

The activities accompanying the 20th Hail Toyota International Rally 2025 will kick off on Monday at Al-Maghwa Park.

The events will take place under the patronage of Governor of Hail Prince Abdulaziz bin Saad bin Abdulaziz, with the participation of various government and private agencies and organizations, according to SPA.
The eight-day program features 20 events, including the Hail Rally Story exhibition, a handicrafts exhibition, a children’s oasis, a motorsport event, and various outdoor activities. Highlights also include folk art performances, a classic car display, and a fireworks show.