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Faculty of Engineering and Computing
Digital medical Twin

DCU Research Pioneers the Future of Digital Health with 6G and Medical Digital Twins

A new study co-authored by DCU’s Professor Gabriel-Miro Muntean explores a bold vision for the future of healthcare, integrating medical digital twins (DTs) into the next generation of mobile networks, 6G. The research, “Migrate or Not: Medical Digital Twins in the Era of 6G Edge-Based Networks”, tackles a critical question: how can a patient’s digital twin seamlessly “move” with them to ensure continuous, reliable care?

A medical digital twin is a precise, real-time virtual replica of a patient, organ, or medical device, powered by data from sensors, wearables, and medical records. This technology can enable precision medicine, allowing early disease detection and virtual testing of treatments, keep medical records continuously updated so vital information is instantly available to healthcare teams, provide realistic, risk-free rehearsal environments for complex surgeries, and accelerate drug development by simulating diverse patient responses to new medicines.

For DTs to be effective, they must remain accurate at all times. But when a patient moves, between hospital departments, cities, or even countries, the DT’s data must be seamlessly transferred to the nearest network server. Without smooth migration, information can become outdated, increasing the risk of delayed treatment or misdiagnosis. The paper focuses on this challenge, introducing the concept of DT migration, the seamless transfer of a digital twin between network servers as the patient moves.

The study shows that the forthcoming 6G cellular network will be key to enabling this process. With its ultra-low latency for near-instant communication, high data rates to support continuous transfer of rich medical data, enhanced security features such as quantum cryptography and blockchain, and edge computing that processes data close to the patient, 6G will provide the infrastructure needed for reliable, real-time DT migration.

Drawing on a detailed simulation campaign, the paper examines trade-offs in different migration strategies and highlights the transformative impact that mobility-driven medical digital twins could have on healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

Read the full paper: Migrate or Not: Medical Digital Twins in the Era of 6G Edge-Based Networks, IEEE Access here.