The Digital Twin Dilemma: Why Most Hospitals Aren’t ‘Twinning’ (Yet)

How many times have you gotten lost in a hospital? Probably a lot… Now what if there was a perfect virtual replica of that hospital that you could use to navigate the site – and also get additional information on the hospital, such as the indoor air quality? That sounds pretty awesome, right? Lucky for you, solutions that provide exactly this are available in the market: welcome to the wonderful world of digital twins. A digital twin is a dynamic virtual replica of a building that duplicates the building’s physical properties, systems and processes. It simulates the building's performance using real-time and historical data, as well as a comprehensive analysis tool kit.

Given the complexity of systems and processes within the sites, digital twins are well-suited to be deployed across hospitals – and not just to help visitors find their way. A digital twin could integrate with all the core building systems, such as HVAC, and the medical systems, such as nurse-calling systems, providing a truly holistic view of operations and enabling remote operation. Advanced analytics within digital twin solutions enable predictive maintenance processes, improving the health of a hospital’s assets and its patients while also reducing downtime.

In a healthcare setting, digital twins can be used to virtually represent patient health and improve care services. For example, ThoughtWire’s Early Warning Network solution continuously monitors a patient’s condition, recognizes negative trends and proactively recommends actions to avoid health deterioration. Using this solution, Hamilton Health Sciences was able to reduce cardiac arrests and unplanned intensive care unit admissions. The simulation capabilities of digital twins can not only simulate the impact of refurbishments or energy infrastructure changes, but also simulate patient flows to ensure hospital layouts minimize wait times and overcrowding. Patients themselves can rest easy knowing that operators have a digital twin that monitors and optimizes the indoor environment to the healthiest standards.

Despite the advantages of digital twins for hospital environments, adoption continues to lag. Hospitals face fragmented technology systems – often having separate platforms for non-clinical equipment and clinical processes. Building and medical systems all have different ages, vendors, service providers and communication protocols, further complicating the integration processes. Hospitals own massive volumes of highly sensitive patient and health data, creating governance challenges and cyber security concerns. Building-level digital twins must thus be carefully managed separately from clinical systems, adding yet another layer of complexity to the implementation. Finally, hospitals as standalone entities typically don’t have the budget or resources required to deploy digital twins. Hospital CAPEX typically prioritizes clinical equipment over digital infrastructure – despite the fact that digital twin implementations have demonstrated improvements in clinical outcomes through connecting clinical equipment and digital facilities infrastructure. On a human resourcing level, facilities teams may not have the expertise needed to implement digital twins.

The future of digital twins for hospitals is not all doom and gloom: as more hospitals lead the way in digital twin implementations, the return on investment metrics are starting to crystallize, which will push more hospitals to do the same. Furthermore, case studies outlining the processes hospitals undertake for these projects will help future healthcare leaders adopt and further develop best practices.

Interested in learning more about the high-value use cases for digital twins or future of hospitals? Check out the High Value Use Cases For Smart Building Digital Twins and Future Of Hospitals (North America) reports!