What are the future of digital twins in industry and healthcare?
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The Future of Digital Twins in Industry and Healthcare
Digital Twins in Industry: Transformative Potential and Challenges
Enabling Technologies and Applications
Digital Twin (DT) technology is revolutionizing various industries by creating digital replicas of physical systems, enabling real-time monitoring, analysis, and optimization. Key enabling technologies include the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D modeling, next-generation mobile communications (5G/6G), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), distributed computing, and electronic sensors1. These technologies allow DTs to provide seamless monitoring and predictive capabilities, which are crucial for complex system evaluations that traditional simulations cannot achieve1.
Industrial Applications and Benefits
In the industrial sector, DTs are extensively used in manufacturing, smart cities, and infrastructure management. They facilitate the integration of data between physical and virtual machines, enhancing efficiency and productivity6. For instance, in manufacturing, DTs help in predictive maintenance, process optimization, and quality control, leading to reduced downtime and cost savings6. The ability to simulate and test scenarios in a virtual environment before implementing them in the real world is a significant advantage, providing a safer and more cost-effective approach to innovation and problem-solving1 6.
Challenges and Future Prospects
Despite their potential, DTs face several challenges, including complexities in data communication, data unavailability for training machine learning models, and the need for high processing power to support high-fidelity twins1. Additionally, there is a lack of standardized development methodologies and validation measures, which hinders widespread adoption1. Future research is expected to focus on overcoming these challenges, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of robust frameworks for DT implementation1 6.
Digital Twins in Healthcare: Personalized and Precision Medicine
Human Digital Twins (HDT) and Personalized Healthcare
Human Digital Twins (HDTs) represent a significant advancement in personalized healthcare, offering the potential to revolutionize patient care through precise and individualized treatment plans. HDTs integrate various tools such as AI and blockchain to enable personalized healthcare services (PHS)2. By creating virtual replicas of patients, including their tissues, organs, and physiological processes, HDTs can monitor disease progression, optimize treatment plans, and facilitate early diagnosis9.
Applications and Use Cases
The application of DTs in healthcare spans multiple areas, including precision medicine, clinical trial design, and hospital operations8. For example, DTs can model complex multi-omics interactions between genetic and environmental factors, aiding in the selection of appropriate molecular therapies and precision surgical planning9. Additionally, DTs can improve organizational management processes and resource allocation within healthcare institutions9. Specific use cases include personalized COVID-19 medicine, osteoporosis prevention, cancer survivor follow-up care, and personalized nutrition3.
Technological and Methodological Challenges
The implementation of HDTs is more complex than other DT applications due to the intricate nature of the human body and the constant molecular and physiological changes2. Extracting precise medical data and modeling HDTs accurately remains a significant challenge2. Moreover, issues related to data security, data quality, and data interoperability must be addressed to ensure the successful adoption of DTs in healthcare9. Future research will likely focus on developing non-invasive and high-throughput data collection methods, as well as advancements in modeling and computational power to enhance DT systems10.
Future Directions and Research Opportunities
The future of DTs in healthcare is promising, with potential applications in monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment strategy development tailored to individual patients10. Technological advancements such as omics and the Metaverse are opening new possibilities for DTs in healthcare, emphasizing the importance of real-time capability and accuracy4. Researchers are encouraged to explore these emerging technologies and address the existing challenges to fully realize the potential of DTs in transforming healthcare4 10.
Conclusion
Digital Twin technology holds immense potential to transform both industry and healthcare by enabling real-time monitoring, predictive analysis, and personalized solutions. While significant progress has been made, challenges related to data communication, processing power, and standardization remain. Future research and interdisciplinary collaboration will be crucial in overcoming these obstacles and unlocking the full potential of DTs in reshaping industries and enhancing personalized healthcare.
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Most relevant research papers on this topic
Digital Twins: A Survey on Enabling Technologies, Challenges, Trends and Future Prospects
Digital twins offer seamless monitoring, analysis, and predictions for complex systems, but face challenges in communication, data accumulation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Highly CitedHuman Digital Twin for Personalized Healthcare: Vision, Architecture and Future Directions
Human digital twin (HDT) technology can revolutionize healthcare by enabling personalized healthcare services using artificial intelligence and blockchain, but its implementation methods and technical challenges require further investigation.
Personal Digital Twin: A Close Look into the Present and a Step towards the Future of Personalised Healthcare Industry
Personal digital twins (PDTs) can revolutionize healthcare by enabling more accurate decision-making and treatment selection, but are currently in an early stage.
Detecting latent topics and trends of digital twins in healthcare: A structural topic model-based systematic review
Digital twins in healthcare focus on technology development and real-time service, with a focus on health enhancement and real-time capability.
Systematic ReviewImpactful Digital Twin in the Healthcare Revolution
Over the last few decades, our digitally expanding world has experienced another significant digitalization boost because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital transformations are changing every aspect of this world. New technological innovations are springing up continuously, attracting increasing attention and investments. Digital twin, one of the highest trending technologies of recent years, is now joining forces with the healthcare sector, which has been under the spotlight since the outbreak of COVID-19. This paper sets out to promote a better understanding of digital twin technology, clarify some common misconceptions, and review the current trajectory of digital twin applications in healthcare. Furthermore, the functionalities of the digital twin in different life stages are summarized in the context of a digital twin model in healthcare. Following the Internet of Things as a service concept and digital twining as a service model supporting Industry 4.0, we propose a paradigm of digital twinning everything as a healthcare service, and different groups of physical entities are also clarified for clear reference of digital twin architecture in healthcare. This research discusses the value of digital twin technology in healthcare, as well as current challenges and insights for future research.
Digital Twin: Enabling Technologies, Challenges and Open Research
Digital twin technology offers seamless data integration between physical and virtual machines, with potential applications in manufacturing, healthcare, and smart cities.
Literature ReviewHighly CitedDigital Twins in Healthcare: An Architectural Proposal and Its Application in a Social Distancing Case Study
Digital Twin technology can effectively aid in workplace virus containment through social distancing, as demonstrated in the CanTwin case study.
Digital Twins in Healthcare: Is It the Beginning of a New Era of Evidence-Based Medicine? A Critical Review
Digital twins show potential in precision medicine, clinical trial design, and hospital operations, but technical, regulatory, and ethical barriers hinder their wider diffusion and revolutionize healthcare in the future.
Literature Review
Rigorous JournalDigital Twins: The New Frontier for Personalized Medicine?
Digital twins have the potential to revolutionize healthcare by improving patient care, outcomes, and reducing costs, but data security, quality, and interoperability must be addressed before widespread adoption.
Digital Twins in Healthcare: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities
Digital twin technology holds promise for personalized patient care and healthcare innovation, but requires advancements in non-invasive data collection, modeling, and computational power to fully achieve its potential.
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