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Review
. 2021 May 3:12:669811.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.669811. eCollection 2021.

Digital Twins for Multiple Sclerosis

Isabel Voigt  1 , Hernan Inojosa  1 , Anja Dillenseger  1 , Rocco Haase  1 , Katja Akgün  1 , Tjalf Ziemssen  1
Affiliations
Review

Digital Twins for Multiple Sclerosis

Isabel Voigt et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

An individualized innovative disease management is of great importance for people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) to cope with the complexity of this chronic, multidimensional disease. However, an individual state of the art strategy, with precise adjustment to the patient's characteristics, is still far from being part of the everyday care of pwMS. The development of digital twins could decisively advance the necessary implementation of an individualized innovative management of MS. Through artificial intelligence-based analysis of several disease parameters - including clinical and para-clinical outcomes, multi-omics, biomarkers, patient-related data, information about the patient's life circumstances and plans, and medical procedures - a digital twin paired to the patient's characteristic can be created, enabling healthcare professionals to handle large amounts of patient data. This can contribute to a more personalized and effective care by integrating data from multiple sources in a standardized manner, implementing individualized clinical pathways, supporting physician-patient communication and facilitating a shared decision-making. With a clear display of pre-analyzed patient data on a dashboard, patient participation and individualized clinical decisions as well as the prediction of disease progression and treatment simulation could become possible. In this review, we focus on the advantages, challenges and practical aspects of digital twins in the management of MS. We discuss the use of digital twins for MS as a revolutionary tool to improve diagnosis, monitoring and therapy refining patients' well-being, saving economic costs, and enabling prevention of disease progression. Digital twins will help make precision medicine and patient-centered care a reality in everyday life.

Keywords: decision analysis; digital twin; medical care; multiple sclerosis; personalized medicine; precision medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Concept of a digital twin for pwMS.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Multi-omics for precision medicine.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Time flow for digital twins.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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