Thiong'o Grace M, Rutka James T
Division of Neurosurgery, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Front Oncol. 2022 Jan 19;11:781499. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.781499. eCollection 2021.
Healthcare technologies have seen a surge in utilization during the COVID 19 pandemic. Remote patient care, virtual follow-up and other forms of futurism will likely see further adaptation both as a preparational strategy for future pandemics and due to the inevitable evolution of artificial intelligence. This manuscript theorizes the healthcare applications of digital twin technology. Digital twin is a triune concept that involves a physical model, a virtual counterpart, and the interplay between the two constructs. This interface between computer science and medicine is a new frontier with broad potential applications. We propose that digital twin technology can exhaustively and methodologically analyze the associations between a physical cancer patient and a corresponding digital counterpart with the goal of isolating predictors of neurological sequalae of disease. This proposition stems from the premise that data science can complement clinical acumen to scientifically inform the diagnostics, treatment planning and prognostication of cancer care. Specifically, digital twin could predict neurological complications through its utilization in precision medicine, modelling cancer care and treatment, predictive analytics and machine learning, and in consolidating various spectra of clinician opinions.
在新冠疫情期间,医疗技术的使用激增。远程患者护理、虚拟随访以及其他形式的未来主义技术,可能会作为应对未来大流行的准备策略以及人工智能不可避免的发展而得到进一步应用。本文对数字孪生技术在医疗保健领域的应用进行了理论探讨。数字孪生是一个三位一体的概念,涉及物理模型、虚拟对应物以及这两种结构之间的相互作用。计算机科学与医学之间的这种接口是一个具有广泛潜在应用的新领域。我们提出,数字孪生技术可以全面且系统地分析实体癌症患者与其相应数字对应物之间的关联,目的是找出疾病神经后遗症的预测因素。这一主张源于这样一个前提,即数据科学可以补充临床敏锐度,为癌症护理的诊断、治疗规划和预后提供科学依据。具体而言,数字孪生可以通过在精准医学、癌症护理和治疗建模、预测分析和机器学习中的应用,以及整合临床医生的各种意见,来预测神经并发症。