In France, the launch of the MEDITWIN consortium has been announced to explore the possibilities of virtual twins for medical practice, with the aim of enabling doctors to simulate scenarios, and to develop seven new medical practices and “virtual healthcare products” across neurology, cardiology, and oncology.
The consortium consists of seven University Hospital Institutes along with Nantes University Hospital, the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, startups and Dassault Systèmes; the project will be supported by the French government under the France 2030 plan, and will run for five years from 2024 to 2029.
Partners hope that it will help toward the industrialisation, clinical validation, and standardisation of these innovations, as well as the ability to promote their use worldwide. Virtual twins will also be assessed on their implications around elements such as care quality, multidisciplinary decision-making, and safety of medical interventions.
The partnership builds on experience accumulated by founding members such as Dassault Systèmes, whose Living Heart Project focuses on producing personalised digital models of the human heart that can be used for education and training purposes; and whose Living Brain Project looks at improving surgery and prognosis for epilepsy using virtual brain technology.
In a press release from Dassault Systèmes, chairman Bernard Charlès comments: “Virtual twins have successfully enabled the industrial world to transform itself more sustainably. Today, this technology is opening up new possibilities for healthcare by revealing the secrets of the human body – by understanding and representing the invisible.”
In related news, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Collaboration Village initiative, conducted in partnership with Accenture and Microsoft, has highlighted examples of the metaverse’s potential to “revolutionise” industries including health and care.
