Bhupesh Kumar Lad, Professor, IIT Indore and Project Director, IITI DRISHTI CPS Foundation
Atreyee Ghosh, Senior Manager-Technical, IITI DRISHTI CPS Foundation
A digital twin focusing on personalized and preventive care is gaining prominence in contemporary healthcare. It is interesting to note the similarities between the relatively ‘modern’ digital twin approach and the principles outlined in ancient Indian treatise on medicine, Charaka Samhita.
The quote by Acharya Charaka,
“Every Individual is different from one another and thus should be considered as a separate entity”,
recognizes that healthcare should be tailored to an individual’s specific needs. This concept aligns with the idea of using digital twins to create individual-centric healthcare solutions. Additionally, the holistic approach of Ayurveda, addressing both preventive and curative aspects of health, is also in line with the goals of modern healthcare systems that aim to provide comprehensive care.
The CharakDT-Human Digital Twin Platform for Healthcare developed by IIT Indore and DRISHTI CPS is a significant step in bringing these ancient principles into the modern healthcare landscape. By focusing on individual-centric and pathy-agnostic (meaning not limited to any specific medical system) digital healthcare support, this platform aims to leverage technology to provide personalized and preventive care.
DRISHTI CPS is collaborating with academic researchers and startup companies to scale up the development, deployment, and commercialization of supporting technologies. This is a promising approach to make these principles more accessible and effective in contemporary healthcare and reflects a growing trend of merging traditional wisdom with modern technological advancements to enhance healthcare outcomes.
Benefits of Digital Twin in Healthcare
- Improved Healthcare Delivery: The digital twin platform enables better monitoring of patient health and allows healthcare professionals to make informed It helps in effectively managing chronic conditions, predicting adverse events, and providing personalized care to patients.
- Enhanced Efficiency and Cost Savings: The digital twin platform streamlines healthcare processes, reduces manual intervention, and improves operational It helps in optimizing resource allocation, reducing duplication of tests, and minimizing errors, thereby saving time and cost.
- Real-time Data Analytics: The digital twin platform provides real-time analytics and insights based on patient data. This enables proactive decision-making, early detection of potential health issues, and effective population health management.
- Improved Healthcare Access: While better channeling patients in a health center, clinic and hospital, the digital twin platform will bridge geographical barriers and provide access to quality healthcare services for remote and underserved It facilitates telemedicine, remote monitoring, and virtual consultations, ensuring access to specialists and timely healthcare interventions. This contributes to the last-mile delivery of affordable, technology-enabled healthcare services.
Technologies Integrated with CharakDT
DRISHTI CPS has collaborated with various technology developers to integrate their solutions with CharakDT. This enhances the capability of the platform, and at the same time provides easy market access to developers thereby facilitating commercialization of indigenously developed technologies.
Salient Features of the Platform
Scalable Platform:
- Many technology developers are contributing towards diverse technology elements
- Enhancing platform capability through various integrated solutions
- Interoperability of solutions and devices
Sustainable Platform:
- Connecting technology developers to hospitals and data sources for validation
- Connecting hospitals and practitioners to available technology
- Commercial viability of the platform
Predictive, Preventive, and Personalized Healthcare Platform:
- Holistics modeling
- Creating individual, family and and community health profiles