Digital twin assisted surgery, concept, opportunities, and challenges

Lisa Asciak; Justicia Kyeremeh; Xichun Luo; Asimina Kazakidi; Patricia Connolly; Frederic Picard; Kevin O'Neill; Sotirios A Tsaftaris; Grant D Stewart; Wenmiao Shu

doi:10.1038/s41746-024-01413-0

Digital twin assisted surgery, concept, opportunities, and challenges

NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Jan 15;8(1):32. doi: 10.1038/s41746-024-01413-0.

Authors

Lisa Asciak¹, Justicia Kyeremeh^{2

3}, Xichun Luo⁴, Asimina Kazakidi¹, Patricia Connolly¹, Frederic Picard^{1

5}, Kevin O'Neill⁶, Sotirios A Tsaftaris⁷, Grant D Stewart^{2

3}, Wenmiao Shu⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wolfson Centre, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
² Department of Surgery, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
³ CRUK Cambridge Centre, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Centre for Precision Manufacturing, DMEM, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
⁵ NHS Golden Jubilee University National Hospital, Clydebank, Glasgow, UK.
⁶ Department of Neurosurgery, Division of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK.
⁷ Imaging, Data and Communications, The University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FG, Edinburgh, UK.
⁸ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wolfson Centre, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. [email protected].

PMID: 39815013
DOI: 10.1038/s41746-024-01413-0

Abstract

Computer-assisted surgery is becoming essential in modern medicine to accurately plan, guide, and perform surgeries. Similarly, Digital Twin technology is expected to be instrumental in the future of surgery, owing to its capacity to virtually replicate patient-specific interventions whilst providing real-time updates to clinicians. This perspective introduces the term Digital Twin-Assisted Surgery and discusses its potential to improve surgical precision and outcome, along with key challenges for successful clinical translation.

Publication types

Review

Abstract

Publication types

Grants and funding