An Ecosystem for DIgital Twins in Healthcare

Mission

EDITH is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA), funded by the European Commission, which will capitalise on the developments of digital technologies, high performance computing, availability and access to research and healthcare data in Europe, with the mission of defining a roadmap to go from separated single organ systems, to data-driven and knowledge-driven fully integrated multiscale and multiorgan whole-body twin. EDITH will facilitate this process by building an evolutionary ecosystem, driven by a consensus among the relevant European communities, and implemented through the aid of practical tools, such as a data/model repository (within the scope of EDITH), and a simulation platform (to be implemented after EDITH).

Abstract

The overall aim of the EDITH project is to foster an inclusive ecosystem for Digital Twins in healthcare in Europe and to prompt the convergence of such an ecosystem towards a common strategy conducive to its further development. This is achieved by mapping and analysing the status of the fields which are crucial for the growth, uptake and use of digital twins in healthcare, including in silico medicine, health data interoperability, high performance computing, ethical and legal regulations etc. A vision for the integrated human digital twin will be developed, based on standardised (meta-)data and models, and a roadmap to realise that vision will be articulated. Additionally, a federated cloud-based repository will be established, to bring together currently available resources and best practices. The ecosystem will be leveraged to create a repository catalogue with available resources and recruit resources into the repository during the project. Conditions for integration in the repository in terms of required standards, regulations, meta-data, and others. will be identified. Finally, building on available infrastructure, a framework for a simulation platform will be put forward with pre-selected prototypes demonstrating a proof of concept. User communities (healthcare professionals, patients, industry and academia) will be actively involved in the process to ensure their needs are built into the architecture. Several activities will focus on the exploitation of parts of the repository and simulation platform. Throughout the entire EDITH action, the community, its stakeholders and relevant international partners will be consulted via advisory boards, public meetings, community challenges and other public activities in order to firmly establish a sustainable ecosystem allowing to realise the vision of the integrated digital twin for personalised healthcare.

EDITH Presentations

• M. Bubak, M. Kasztelnik, M. Malawski, J. Meizner, P. Nowakowski, P. Połeć: Research towards virtual human twins (pptx version), presented at the KUKDM Conference, Zakopane, Poland, 13-15 March 2024

Partners

• VPHi, Belgium
• LYNKEUS, Italy
• ACK Cyfronet AGH, Poland
• ATHENA, Greece
• BSC, Spain
• DIGITALEUROPE, Belgium
• EMPIRICA, Germany
• EPFL, Switzerland
• FORTH, Greece
• HITS, Germany
• INRIA, France
• JÜLICH, Germany
• PI SCHOOL, Italy
• QMUL, UK
• RWTH, Germany
• ULIÈGE, Belgium
• UNIBO, Italy
• UvA, Netherlands
• VITO, Belgium

Project website