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Digital twins and AI-powered imaging: Let's chat emerging medicine tech.
S1E19 | Highlights and impact of this week's top tech themes.
Hi, Friends —
✰ Welcome to [our digital disco]! Keep scrolling for this week’s key themes in medical tech and other misc. thoughts (Snack Time). You can also check out last week’s newsletter here.
☞ Will your next visit to the doctor create your digital twin?
Scientists worldwide are making significant progress in developing digital replicas, known as "digital twins," of different organs and systems in the human body. These digital twins mimic the structure, function, and behavior of organs such as the heart, blood vessels, and even the human brain. These digital representations integrate various data sources, including medical records, imaging data, genomic information, and real-time monitoring data, to create a comprehensive and dynamic simulation of an individual's health status. As digital twins become more advanced, efforts are being made to connect various systems and map entire bodies digitally. These comprehensive models of human physiology can enable scientists and practitioners to study diseases, system relations, and drug treatments in a simulated environment, and optimize interventions before real humans become involved.
Why does it matter: The global digital twin healthcare market is expected to reach $21.1B by 2028, driven by technological advancements supporting various healthcare applications and the adoption of digital twin technology in emerging markets. The healthcare industry is embracing digital twins as part of its digital transformation strategy, with a focus on improving operational efficiency, profitability, and high-quality patient care. The personalized medicine segment holds a substantial share of the market, offering improved patient modeling and enhanced outcomes.
Pros: Ultimately, digital twins have the potential to shape the future of healthcare, with the potential to transform medicine from a one-size-fits-all approach to a predictive and personalized one. This practice can empower individuals to make informed decisions about their health and potentially enhancing their overall well-being. For example, a practitioner could use a patient’s digital twin to for understand and address irregular heartbeats, testing thousands of treatment options based on personal health history to predict outcomes and guide treatment. Further, traditional clinical trials can be time-consuming, expensive, and potentially risky for participants. Digital twins offer the possibility of conducting virtual human trials, where the effects of drugs or therapies can be simulated and evaluated without the need for extensive human or animal testing. This approach can accelerate the drug development process, reduce costs, and minimize the exposure of patients to experimental treatments.
Cons: The development and implementation of digital twins require robust personal data integration, raising concerns about privacy, data security, and validation. Biases and inaccuracies in the data used to create and update digital twins could also have significant consequences for patient care and outcomes. Moreover, performing simulations at such a scale demands significant computational resources to simulate and model complex biological systems accurately. There are some key innovators in this space, however, looking to drastically reduce the time and resources needed to simulate human systems and their relationships.
Looking forward: With the help of supercomputers, scientists can simulate the behavior of organs, such as the heart, to test different treatments and predict how a specific patient will respond. These simulations are more sophisticated and provide a comprehensive understanding of the human body's functioning. Quantum computing, for example, holds promise for digital twins and other complex computational tasks. Quantum computers exploit the principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations much faster than classical computers for certain problems. In the context of digital twins, quantum computing can accelerate simulations and enable more accurate modeling of biological systems. Quantum simulation techniques can provide insights into the behavior of molecules and proteins, improving our understanding of their interactions and aiding in drug discovery and development.
☞ The current — and future — state of full-body scans.
Full-body scans are being touted as a potential future for preventive medicine, with claims that they can diagnose faster and more affordable through the use of artificial intelligence. These imaging procedures use advanced MRI technology to examine and analyze the entire body, including all major bodily systems and organs, to detect a wide range of medical conditions and provide a comprehensive assessment of an individual's health. There is a gap between this vision and the reality of the medical community, however. Most doctors today advise against full-body scans for healthy adults; in their current form, these MRIs raise the risk of false positives, or pursuing benign findings with invasive follow-up procedures. While there is a small chance that a scan could lead to an early diagnosis of a serious health condition, the likelihood of finding something minor is almost guaranteed. They’re also not cheap, with scans raking up bills of over $2,500.
Why does it matter? Full-body MRI providers are becoming increasingly popular, challenging common guidance from traditional medical groups. Many of these companies are also incorporating other technologies such as AI — which might just be what’s needed to boost their false positive dilemma. By enhancing the quality of images captured during a scan, as well as removing any distortions that may hinder accurate interpretation, radiologists can obtain more precise information. AI can also assist radiologists with image interpretation, aiding in the detection of potential health conditions. While the use ofAI isn't new to medicine, researchers have been especially excited about how it could improve the world of radiology and diagnostics. Google, for one example, is experimenting with AI in ultrasound technology, which make the tech both easier and cheaper.
Pros: Better full body imaging technologies have the potential to significantly benefit various medical issues by enabling early detection, precise diagnosis, and personalized treatment planning. The companies offering these scans, such as Prenuvo and Ezra, have the potential to revolutionize medical technology. One of the key areas where improved full body imaging can make a difference is in the field of cancer. By providing detailed imaging of different organs and tissues, these advanced techniques can help detect tumors and abnormal growths at their early stages, leading to timely interventions and improved treatment outcomes.
Cons: The medical community remains cautious about the widespread adoption of these advanced imaging techniques, particularly for individuals who are predominantly healthy. Major medical organizations, including the American College of Radiology, do not endorse the use of full-body screenings for asymptomatic patients or those without specific risk factors or family histories indicating underlying diseases. The lack of standardized interpretation methods and the possibility of unnecessary invasive interventions raise further apprehensions among healthcare professionals.
Snacktime
📓 Reading: Accountable: The Rise of Citizen Capitalism by Michael O'Leary & Warren Valdmanis. The book dives into corporations, their commitment to profit above all else, and the potential for change toward increased social responsibility and governance.
♬ Listening to: Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Bare Bones and First Class.
✰ Thinking about: I think, in many ways, kindness and love are both an energy and a perspective. In difficult times, they feel like a rare pipe dream; and other times, the essence of the world in which we live. For me, choosing to operate under the assumption of the kindness of the world and of others drastically changes my daily and longer-term experience — in my lens and intentions, as well as the people and opportunities I inherently surround myself with. The latter is something I seem to re-discover every few months or years in a new way.
✿ As always — any and all feedback is welcome! In the meantime, give someone a hug and say an ‘I love you’ this week. Make the world a little happier.