Digital twin in clinical practice
At the Cluster Breakfast held at Sano, participants discussed how the concept of the digital twin—a computer‑based, personalized model of a patient—translates into real clinical decisions and the organization of healthcare. The event emphasized that a digital twin is not just modeling; above all, it is a tool that supports diagnosis, therapy planning, and real‑time monitoring of treatment effectiveness.
Sano’s voice: the center and its ecosystem
Marian Bubak (Scientific Affairs Director at Sano) outlined the center’s mission: to develop computational methods and reliable simulations and transfer them into clinical practice, including through collaboration with universities, hospitals, and industry partners not only in Krakow and across Europe, but worldwide. Within this ecosystem, the digital twin becomes connective tissue linking patient data, disease models, and AI tools, shortening the path from research to the patient’s bedside.
Cardiology case: DVT and the cardiovascular system
Magdalena Otta (PhD Student in Extreme‑scale Data and Computing) presented applications of digital twins in cardiovascular disorders, with a focus on personalizing models for diagnostics and intervention selection. Clinically, the key elements are risk modeling, forecasting disease trajectories, and testing therapeutic strategies without exposing the patient to risk, thereby enhancing safety and treatment effectiveness.
Why clinics need digital twins
- Better tailoring of therapy to individual physiology and comorbidities, which can limit adverse effects and shorten time to treatment response.
- Planning interventions on the “twin” to anticipate procedural consequences and optimize the clinical pathway before making a therapeutic decision.
- Continuous monitoring and model updates as new data arrive, improving early detection of deterioration and supporting bedside decision‑making.
Implementation conditions: trustworthiness, data, integration
Effective deployment requires trustworthy, clinically validated models, access to standardized data, and integration with existing hospital systems. The organizational dimension also includes the competencies of medical teams and clear accountability pathways for decisions made with the support of simulations.
AI and the Virtual Human Twin
The upcoming Krakow Conference on Computational Medicine 2025 focuses on the “Virtual Human Twin” and the role of AI methods in linking clinical data with multiscale models, emphasizing ethics, trustworthiness, and reproducibility. For clinics, this means growing access to tools that combine imaging, physiological signals, and EHR into coherent, interpretable recommendations.
Value for patients and the health system
Digital twins can reduce unnecessary procedures by steering care toward the most promising therapeutic options and streamlining eligibility for interventions. From a system perspective, they offer better resource allocation and the creation of care pathways grounded in real‑world evidence, not only in population‑average trial results.
Where to start: implementation recommendations
- Pilots in areas with clear clinical outcomes and strong baseline data, e.g., selected cardiology indications.
- Quality and validation frameworks for models, including documenting modeling assumptions and accuracy metrics under clinical conditions.
- An interdisciplinary team combining clinicians, engineers, and data specialists, with clear roles and decision escalation pathways.
Event context and what’s next
The Cluster Breakfast served as a forum for exchange and for announcing initiatives, including a conference on computational medicine. Organizers encourage following upcoming meetings and the post‑event video materials. The recording is available on the official Klaster LifeScience Kraków channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCHt0pOvsM0&list=PLFBJblMbbQs5mw4gtHnOP-Lnderpl-LtQ&index=2&t=1s
Why now
The convergence of mature computational infrastructure, AI methods, and the growing availability of clinical data means the digital twin is moving beyond the concept stage. European initiatives around the Virtual Human Twin point to collaboration and standards that will accelerate adoption in practice.