Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Personalized Medicine: to Twin or not to Twin

Mark Palmer, Distinguished Scientist, Core Technologies group, Corporate Strategy & Scientific Operations, Medtronic.

Abstract

The digital transformation in healthcare has given new energy to the pursuit of personalized medicine and in particular the potential for the “holy grail” of the human Digital Twin.  However, many medical experts are skeptical of the ability to model the patient through the combination of mechanistic and data driven models.  The rationale is that the processes required to populate either type of model require data across the entire complexity and hierarchy of the human physiome and that collecting such data would be harmful or perhaps even fatal to the patient.  Consequently, the conversation is turning away from the Human Digital Twin towards cohort-based modeling approaches as the middle ground between evidence-based and personalized medicine.  In this, presentation we will explore the goals of the Digital Twin in non-healthcare applications and the parallels to patient care.  I will also make the case for why we should continue to pursue the Human Digital Twin, look at recent successes, and identify characteristics of imminent opportunities.

Biography

Mark Palmer, M.D., Ph.D. is a Distinguished Scientist in the Core Technologies group within Corporate Strategy & Scientific Operations at Medtronic. In his current role, Mark leads an internal team of advanced modeling and simulation consultants servicing the global enterprise, manages external collaborations, and leads the strategy and platform technologies for realistic human simulation.   Mark also serves as a member of the Enterprise A. I. Working Group and leads the Enterprise Modeling and Simulation Working Group where he regularly reports to the R&D Council, Clinical Research Council, Executive Committee and the Board of Directors on the long-range R&T Strategy for Modeling & Simulation. Mark’s expertise includes fully coupled multi-scale finite element methods, large deformation tissue mechanics, and clinical image-based modeling techniques.  In 2020, Mark was named a Medtronic Technical Fellow for his outstanding contributions to the company’s technical excellence. Mark is passionate about advancing human simulation, virtual patient technologies, and digital evidence standards for the medical device industry.