A consensus statement on the use of digital twins in medicine.

Journal: NPJ digital medicine
Published Date: Jul 28, 2025

Abstract

Digital Health Technologies represent a marked shift from current medical technologies in use, the approach to health and healthcare and stakeholders engaged in healthcare delivery. What the digitalized future of medicine will look like and how it should be governed is unclear. A participatory process with interdisciplinary expert groups developed scenarios of Artificial Intelligence use in medicine and recommendations on their governance. The process included a patient-consumer focus group and the recommendations were validated by a representative population survey in Switzerland. Digital twins were identified as a pivotal innovation for personalized healthcare, with 62% of the Swiss population expressing interest, though 87% oppose mandatory use. Additionally, 75% view the state as responsible for ensuring necessary infrastructure. Digital twins are seen as an opportunity to support both the healthcare provider as well as patient-consumer directly in different modes of use and along functions, prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.

Authors

  • Jeffrey David Iqbal
    Institute for Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Michael Krauthammer
    Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
  • Claudia M Witt
    Digital Society Initiative (DSI), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Nikola Biller-Andorno
    Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Markus Christen
    Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

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