What is a digital twin in healthcare?

A digital twin is a computational model that mirrors a physical entity — in healthcare, this could be an individual patient, an organ, a hospital ward, or an entire health system. It continuously updates with real-time data to simulate scenarios, predict outcomes, and optimise interventions. Applications include personalised treatment planning (cardiac digital twins for arrhythmia ablation), hospital operational modelling, and drug development. Clinical deployment remains early-stage for most applications.