Deeply personalised healthcare including digital “health twins“ could be the next step in improving care outcomes, the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII) health and wellbeing summit has heard.
Axa Health medical director of services and delivery Dr Corne Hurter told delegates technology could improve the chances of people overcoming a range of illnesses including cancer.
She added that healthcare journeys for individuals need to become more personal, precise, predictable and participatory to be effective.
Digital twin
To achieve such precision individuals will need to be allocated treatments which, based on their personal data, will be effective and safe.
This is due to medicines reacting differently in different people in terms of efficacy and any side effects.
“People don’t want to be given something that is going to give them a rash or an itch just because it worked for someone else,” Dr Hurter said.
So how could technology give us such preferable treatment?
“We are familiar with being monitored. We all have wearables, we have sleep monitors and we fill in [health] surveys,” Dr Hurter said.
She noted that such technologies are designed to create better outcomes for individuals based on personal data.
“Google Maps is a digital tool that is personal. It maps the whole world and tells you how to get to where you want to go and if there will be any delays,” Dr Hurter continued.
“Digital healthcare has the ability to do that for us. It is lives in a data haven where it connects data about me and creates my twin.”
The potential of this “digital twin” is using the data it holds on someone to check if a particular drug will work for them.
“The work around digital health twins is remarkable. Where it can take us on healthcare journeys and in terms of value is unparalleled,” Dr Hurter said.
“This is the kind of stuff I dreamt about when I was providing care.”
On a molecular level
“Where it becomes incredibly exciting is when we start looking at cancer,” Dr Hurter said.
This is where computational health becomes a factor in calculating the probability of a genetic mutation making someone a successful candidate for a trial drug.
“That short cuts so much trial and error in the process of treating people who need to get a precise answer as soon as possible,” she continued.
This is approaching illness at a molecular level, such as looking at the way the body multiplies cancer cells or fights disease.
“If we look closely, we can use this to precisely predict if a particular drug or radiotherapy is going to work for this particular person on this particular journey,” she added.