Choosing the most appropriate treatment for each patient before applying it in their body is one of the objectives of a new project driven by the Hospital Universitario Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona. The center will develop human digital twins, customized virtual replicas of organs, systems, and biological processes that will make it possible to simulate how a disease evolves and how a person might respond to different treatments.
The initiative seeks to advance personalized medicine through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), medical imaging, clinical data, genomic information, and computational models. With this combination of technologies, specialists will be able to digitally reproduce the behavior of certain organs and pathologies in order to study different therapeutic scenarios before transferring them to clinical practice.
As the hospital explains, these models will have to serve as support for medical decisions, facilitating the selection of the most appropriate treatments and the planning of complex interventions.
What are human digital twins and how can they help patients?
Digital twins are personalized virtual representations built from real information from each patient. Unlike conventional three-dimensional anatomical models, which mainly reproduce the structure of an organ, these replicas incorporate information about its functioning and the behavior of certain diseases.
In this way, researchers will be able to simulate different scenarios and study how a pathology might evolve or what effects a specific treatment could have before applying it to the patient.
The technology will allow, for example, comparing different therapeutic alternatives in a virtual model of a person’s heart with a complex heart disease. The objective is to anticipate possible responses and provide healthcare professionals with more information for making decisions.
The clinical director of Radiodiagnóstico at Vall d'Hebron, Manel Escobar, has noted that these models have predictive capacity and can help anticipate a patient’s evolution or the effects a treatment could cause them. However, the specialist emphasizes that they should be understood as tools to support clinical decision-making.
A project of 11.7 million euros and three years of development
The project has funding of 11.7 million euros from the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF), within the Platform for Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP).
Under the program called 3Dx3C, 'New digital technologies for the personalized approach to congenital and complex pathologies', the hospital will develop over the next three years advanced computational models for different medical and surgical specialties.
To this end, Vall d'Hebron will establish agreements with technology companies that will participate in the joint development of the digital solutions. The initiative aims to leverage the expertise that the center has already built up in 3D technologies, artificial intelligence, medical imaging, and high-complexity surgery.
The hospital has a specialized unit in 3D technologies that already works on creating personalized anatomical models and on planning complex surgical interventions. The new project seeks to take one more step: moving from virtually reproducing the anatomy of an organ to also simulating its functioning and the evolution of certain pathologies.
From the heart to migraine: the applications that Vall d'Hebron will develop
The program includes ten integrated actions in different medical areas. Among the planned applications are:
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Pediatric cardiology: creation of digital twins that reproduce the electrical activity of the heart of patients with congenital heart disease.
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Detection of heart diseases: development of models to identify possible heart disease at an early stage based on electrocardiograms.
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Migraine: development of digital tools to advance personalized treatment for patients.
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Cardiac surgery: simulation of procedures such as ablation in cases of ventricular tachycardia or percutaneous implantation of pulmonary valves.
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Hepatic surgery: planning interventions to remove liver tumors.
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Congenital heart disease: creation of models to plan procedures in patients with tetralogy of Fallot.
In addition, the project includes a platform to integrate clinical data from different sources and the development of personalized three-dimensional anatomical models that can be viewed directly in the operating room. These tools may also incorporate augmented reality to facilitate planning interventions through robotic or laparoscopic surgery.
A technology still under development
Although digital twins open new possibilities for moving toward more personalized treatments, the Vall d'Hebron project is in a development phase. The next three years will be devoted to building and refining the computational models together with the participating technology companies.
Therefore, its potential applications and clinical benefits will still have to be developed and validated before these tools can be incorporated in a widespread manner into healthcare assistance.
The ultimate goal is for the technology to allow healthcare professionals to have more information before making therapeutic decisions, reduce risks, and adapt treatments to the characteristics of each patient.