Imagine if you could create a digital clone of yourself that can be used to test various treatment options to determine which one is best for your real self. As strange as this may sound, it’s no longer in the realm of science fiction.

What Are Digital Twins?

According to consulting firm McKinsey & Co, “digital twin is a digital replica of a physical object, person, system or process, contextualized in a digital version of its environment. Digital twins can help many kinds of organizations simulate real situations and their outcomes, ultimately allowing them to make better decisions.”

In the inanimate world, that could include a computer model of an airplane that can be used to test out new design concepts or safety features, or a digital twin that simulates the functioning of a piece of machinery that needs an update. It's likely about $73.5 billion will be spent on this technology by 2027, including product, data and system twins.

How Are Digital Twins Used?

A recent study from Scientific Reports illustrates how the technology can be used in a medical setting. Indian investigators enrolled over 1,800 patients with type 2 diabetes and created a digital twin (DT) for each patient that simulated their metabolic status, dietary intake, blood glucose levels and lifestyle habits, enabling the twin to predict a patient’s outcomes.

Shamanna et al explained: “The DT system continuously collects and analyzes data from various sensors and inputs, allowing it to offer personalized dietary and lifestyle recommendations that are precisely calibrated to minimize PPGRs [postprandial glucose response] and improve overall glycemic control. The DT platform will suggest the right food to the right participant at the right time based on current readings. The behavioral nudges provided by the digital twin were accompanied by human coaching.”

Related Content

How Automation Gives Back One of Healthcare’s Most Valuable Resources – Time

Intelligent automation is already easing administrative burdens and improving patient access to care.

Read More

This kind of individualized advice goes way beyond what is offered to patients with diabetes, who typically receive recommendations based on static guidelines and the results of the blood glucose.

The study results suggest digital twin technology works. At one-year follow-up, patients on the program saw significant improvement in hemoglobin A1c levels, with a drop of 1.8%, and 89% achieved a drop to less than 7%, a goal that diabetes experts recommend. They also required significantly less antidiabetes medication and experienced better weight reduction and less insulin resistance.

Similarly, researchers from Yale School of Medicine, University of Oxford and elsewhere have shown that digital twin technology has the potential to transform cardiovascular medicine. Thangaraj et al explain that these cardiac replicas can “enhance disease phenotyping, enrich diagnostic workflows, and optimize procedural planning. Digital twin technology is rapidly evolving in the setting of newly available data modalities and advances in generative artificial intelligence, enabling dynamic and comprehensive simulations unique to an individual. These twins fuse physiologic, environmental and healthcare data into machine learning and generative models to build real-time patient predictions that can model interactions with the clinical environment to accelerate personalized patient care.”

In simple English, the healthcare data they refer to integrates various diagnostic procedures — e.g., ECGs, cardiac imaging and vital signs — with several other multimodal sources, including content from an individual patient’s electronic health record, their lifestyle decisions, and their exposure to climate change, medications, environmental toxins and so on. These resources enable clinicians to make predictions about what is likely to happen to the real patient being profiled. Studies suggest, for instance, that digital twins may help cardiologists estimate an individual’s risk of ventricular arrhythmias if they already have ischemic cardiomyopathy by using certain anatomical substrates, triggers and modulators.

Digital Twins in Action

Phyllis M. Thangaraj, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiology fellow at Yale School of Medicine, and her colleagues provide an example of how the technology might work.

Ms. K, 76 years old, has heart failure, preserved ejection fraction, type 2 diabetes, obesity and hypertension. Her electronic health record offers additional data, including an enlarged left atrium, and a note recommending her diuretic be paused because hydrochlorothiazide has lowered her potassium level and increased uric acid.

Her digital twin model is created based on all her data and runs a simulation of different blood pressure and diuretic drugs, comparing it to other patients with similar profiles. The twin also takes into account the latest guidelines and randomized controlled trials, finally recommending the patient be put back on hydrochlorothiazide and several other medications.

While this scenario is not yet within reach of most healthcare providers, it has the potential to profoundly transform patient care.

This article was originally published on Mayo Clinic Platform.

The post Digital Twin Technology Has Potential to Redefine Care appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, highlights Mayo Clinic leaders who exemplify these competencies with the hope that their stories will inspire others to come forward to lead healthcare transformation at this critical juncture.

“Leads self” means taking action to address personal well-being, manage stress and mitigate burnout while modeling these behaviors for others and using these actions to be a more effective, productive and innovative leader. 

Prioritizing self-care helps us maintain stamina for the leadership journey. Self-care takes many forms, and at Mayo, one of the ways we prioritize self-care is by finding joy and fulfillment at work. Personally, I have always found joy in my work as a researcher, and despite the demands of current or previous leadership roles, I have kept research as part of my life as a source of fulfillment. I also designate three days a month of “brain freedom” for personal reflection or stimulating conversation with thought leaders internal and external to Mayo Clinic. 

Prioritizing personal and professional development is also essential to self-care. To support this, we have created self-guided activities that focus on social, financial, emotional and physical well-being, as well as collaborative workshops and coaching groups to enhance work-life integration and meaning in work. 

Self-care in healthcare also requires proactive steps to mitigate burnout, including embracing new technologies and innovations like automation that free up time for more meaningful tasks. 

Vijay Shah, M.D., Kinney Executive Dean of Research and Carol M. Gatton Professor of Digestive Diseases Research, exemplifies the competency of “leads self” through his efforts to support well-being and his personal commitment to consistent self-reflection. 

While leading Mayo Clinic in Rochester’s Department of Medicine, Dr. Shah initiated a transformative strategy to support well-being and professional growth amid the ongoing nationwide threat of physician burnout. Through his leadership, the department has introduced new well-being programs tailored to diverse wellness needs, including piloting the Headspace mental health app prior to its rollout across Mayo Clinic and launching a well-being coaching program that improved clinician well-being scores by 17% using the World Health Organization well-being index. Dr. Shah also initiated career development strategies to better support physicians at every career stage, implementing a six-month program to help them create personalized career plans. 

Recognizing the critical need to ease the burden of clinical documentation for all members of the care team, Dr. Shah also led our Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reimagined Challenge to encourage staff to share their innovative ideas for how to make Mayo’s EHR work better. As a result, departments have implemented new documentation solutions, utilized AI to enhance note-taking during patient visits, tested AI-generated message prompts in patient portals, and categorized patient messages based on required actions. These innovations have created new and better ways to serve our patients while helping improve work experiences for care teams. Dr. Shah is now serving as the Kinney Executive Dean of Research and Carol M. Gatton Professor of Digestive Diseases Research, where his approach to self-development is helping to encourage and inspire others to persevere through change and lean into the digital transformation of our research shield at Mayo Clinic. 

On a personal level, Dr. Shah believes the hardest part of leadership is often self-management. To help better promote that capability within his own career, each morning he dedicates time to self-reflection, asking himself — What did I do well yesterday? What could I do better? He approaches these questions with genuine curiosity about his interactions and how to improve them.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

The post Vijay Shah, M.D., Leads Transformational Change Through Self-Care appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, highlights Mayo Clinic leaders who exemplify these competencies with the hope that their stories will inspire others to come forward to lead healthcare transformation at this critical juncture.

In times of transformation, we need leaders who engage with others to guide change. People with this competency navigate ambiguity by remaining grounded in our core values while helping others in the organization see the benefits of change. 

One of Mayo Clinic’s founders, Charlie Mayo, M.D., famously said, "Today the only thing that is permanent is change." This is just as important today as when he said it more than 90 years ago. Leaders must become master change agents, while remaining servant leaders, which means they must be dedicated to our primary value — the needs of the patient come first — while building consensus around innovative, unconventional ways to accomplish it. 

Ajani (AJ) Dunn, FACHE, chief administrative officer of Mayo Clinic in Florida, embraces ambiguity and complexity and is an excellent example of “engages others” to lead change. 

In 2019, AJ led our effort to establish Advanced Care at Home, which offers acute, inpatient-level care to people in the comfort of their own homes. 

Realizing the critical need for more flexible care options during the pandemic, AJ helped Mayo Clinic bring together multiple elements, including our Platform, our internal digital health teams and an external implementation partner, Medically Home, to create a more seamless hospital-at-home care experience. Even amid significant ambiguity, AJ deftly surrounded himself with a network of stakeholders and experts — from nursing and physician leaders to supply chain and IT teams — to help shape a vision for the new program. 

To foster support for the new program, AJ consistently connected every aspect of the project back to its primary goal of improving patient care, emphasizing that the new care model would enable patients to heal in the comfort of their own homes and manage their conditions in a familiar environment. 

By embedding the program’s patient-centered vision in all aspects of his leadership, AJ helped foster both enthusiasm and commitment to making the care model a success. Today, more than 29,500 patients have been treated through this care model, and studies have shown that hospital-quality care at home has reduced infections and falls, and improved patient outcomes and satisfaction.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

The post Ajani Dunn Engages Others to Lead Change appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, highlights Mayo Clinic leaders who exemplify these competencies with the hope that their stories will inspire others to come forward to lead healthcare transformation at this critical juncture.

The competency of “leads others” involves developing talent by mentoring, sponsoring and coaching people, using personalized guidance based on current circumstances and individual characteristics. 

Leadership development and mentorship are critical to building the next generation of healthcare leaders. While we often think of formal leadership programs in this regard, I have found even a five-minute informal conversation — where honesty and transparency are prioritized — can instill critical knowledge and inspiration to shape the leaders of tomorrow. 

At Mayo Clinic, one of the ways we’re prioritizing talent development is by actively regenerating our workforce. For example, we support career investment programs that offer staff relevant degree and certification programs that align with our Bold. Forward. strategy and current and future patient needs. We’re also investing in generative AI education and resources, creating an avenue for staff to learn about and apply AI as a routine and integrated part of healthcare and not fear it. In addition to these activities, we expect Mayo leaders to actively participate in the recruitment of new staff and to foster a welcoming environment that emphasizes collaboration, mentorship and shared growth from day one. 

Mayo Clinic’s Christina Zorn, chief administrative officer, emulates “leads others” through her commitment to talent development and her focus on nurturing leaders who are equipped to shape the future of healthcare. 

Leadership and talent development within Mayo's administrative areas has been significantly strengthened under Christina’s leadership. She has played a vital role in preparing a qualified group of leaders for future administrative executive roles by establishing processes to thoroughly assess candidates’ readiness, skills, potential, strengths and areas for growth to support our Bold. Forward. strategy. 

Appreciating the need to partner with the best clinicians and researchers in the world, Christina has committed to ensuring our administrative talent is in a category of one. For example, to ensure the future success of emerging leaders, she launched a yearlong mentoring program where each administrative leader sponsors an individual from their succession pool to be intentionally mentored by another administrative leader. After a successful initial cohort, the program has expanded to include additional cohorts of talented individuals from across the organization. What began as succession planning for executive roles within Mayo Clinic’s administrative team has evolved under Christina's leadership to drive authentic and transparent talent development conversations and succession planning deeper into the organization. 

In another example of leading others, Christina routinely rounds in various departments and areas to gather direct and unfiltered feedback about how leaders can help local teams address areas for improvement. By spending time with our staff in their work areas to understand their needs, she is fostering a collaborative and supportive environment where leaders are actively invested in our staff’s success. She would be the first to tell you this is one of the activities she believes every leader should do — and how much she benefits and learns from frontline staff.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

The post Christina Zorn Leads Others Through Commitment to Mentorship appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.