Almost two thirds of Swiss citizens are positive about the possibility of a personalized digital twin of their body – primarily so that their illnesses can be treated in a more coordinated manner. This is shown by a representative survey conducted by the Digital Society Initiative (DSI).
In the coming years, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine will fundamentally transform prevention, diagnosis, therapy and the associated processes and responsibilities in the healthcare sector. Together with experts from the University of Zurich and other organizations, we looked to the future in the "Strategy Lab" of the Digital Society Initiative (DSI). We used a systematic and participatory approach to achieve this. Thanks to this approach, we have identified the digital twin as a significant future development.
Digital image of your own body
A digital twin is a representation of our body, in particular the organs and metabolic processes, using complex software. Isolated organs such as a digital twin heart are already being tested today. For example, a digital heart was personalized for the American long-distance runner Desiree Linden so that, among other things, her cardiac output and workload can be simulated during the New York City Marathon in early November 2023. However, mapping the entire body as a digital twin is much more complex and still a dream of the future.
Majority has a positive attitude
Although digital twins are still a dream of the future, we wanted to know what the Swiss population thinks about them today. We therefore conducted a representative survey together with the survey specialist gfs. The results are interesting: almost two thirds of Swiss people (62%) have a positive attitude towards the digital twin, with the figure rising to 67% among the over-65s. However, use should be a voluntary decision: 87% are against an obligation to use digital twins, even if the treatment would then be worse.
Interested parties most frequently want to use the digital twin to better coordinate treatment (81%), predict the course of the disease (76%), identify disease risks (76%) and check treatment suggestions (71%).
State should create conditions
Three quarters of Swiss citizens believe that the state has a role to play in creating the necessary technical and organizational conditions for the use of digital twins. 64% of respondents believe that users should make their anonymized health data available for research on digital twins.
The public's confidence that digital twins will be used correctly and in their interests is highest in universities with medical research (79%) and public hospitals (75%), followed by federal government offices (62%) and private clinics (59%). Only 32% of respondents trust health insurance companies and even fewer trust the pharmaceutical industry (28%) or technology companies (27%).
Responsible use
Initial developments and our view of the future show that Digital twins will be part of healthcare. We should prepare for this now so that we can benefit from it as much as possible. For this reason, we have developed goals and recommendations for the responsible use of digital twins in medicine from four stakeholder perspectives in our "Strategy Lab": Citizens, healthcare professionals, manufacturers and providers of digital twins as well as regulators and payers.
Building trust among the population
With our "Strategy Lab", we therefore provide recommendations for a responsible approach to this future technology, and we show that the majority of the Swiss population has a positive attitude towards digital twins. However, the survey data also clearly shows that companies still need to build trust among the population. This is because the most important demand of our position paper from the citizens' perspective is that people should continue to have the final say: "Citizens decide on the generation, data sources, design, type of use and lifespan of their personal digital twin services" - this principle also received high approval in our survey.
Position paper with initial goals
The position paper includes the following objectives, which are formulated from the perspective of manufacturers and providers of "digital twins" services (technology companies, start-ups, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and universities):