On the Integration of Agents and Digital Twins in Healthcare

A digital twin is a digital representation of a physical asset reproducing its data model, its behaviour and its communication with other physical assets. They act as a digital replica for the physical object or process they represent, providing nearly real-time monitoring and evaluation without being in close proximity. Although most of their concrete applications can be found mainly in the industrial context, healthcare represents another relevant area where digital twins can have a disruptive impact. The main research question tackled by this paper is about the integration of digital twins with agents and Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) technologies in healthcare, discussing what are the benefits and how such an integration could be realised. After providing an overview of the application of digital twins in healthcare, in this paper we discuss our vision about agent-based digital twins, and we discuss a first case study, about the application of agent-based digital twins to the management of severe traumas.