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EPFL

EPFL | How healthy is your digital twin?

10.06.2021
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Ethical & legal questions

 

Digital twins – a savvy combination of artificial intelligence and personal data – have already begun to revolutionise the way healthcare is provided. But they raise a lot of ethical and legal questions, especially given the vast amounts of medical data that must be collected to train artificial intelligence algorithms. EPFL is asking the following question: should we be worried about the eventuality of a digital clone?

Imagine there was a virtual copy of your body out there – a sort of clone, but in the digital world. And imagine that this clone encapsulated your full medical record: age, height, weight, pre-existing conditions, pulse, organ activity, cholesterol level, genetic predispositions and more. That’s the idea behind digital twins. They convert patients’ medical data into mathematical formulas which are then fed into AI algorithms and computer programs. They work in real-time and run not just on the medical data of the patient being treated, but also on the data generated by all other digital twins.

The goal is for doctors to use these virtual models to make predictions and deliver personalised healthcare. For instance, doctors could use a patient’s digital twin to detect a hidden cancer, test out various treatment protocols, observe the corresponding responses and select the best protocol for that particular individual.

Scientists believe that digital twins stand to revolutionise the practice of healthcare and take much of the mystery out of how to keep patients well. Digital twins have already been (or are in the process of being) developed for specific organs; one for the entire human body could be ready within 15 years. But behind this technological prowess lie several ethical questions, such as how exactly the virtual clones will be used and how patients’ personal data will be protected – especially if the twins are developed by the private sector.

 

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