Digital is driving changes in the industry. What Dassault Systèmes presented in Paris on November 10 is proof that the future must first of all be imagined: a virtual twin of the human body to drive innovation in the field of diagnosisof the treatment and of prevention of diseases. To understand what it is, we need to take a step back in time.
The virtual twins
Digital twins or digital twins are virtual replicas of any physical resource, therefore objects, processes, places and people. They have a transversal application and, after being used for a long time in the industrial field, they are now entering the laboratories of pharmaceutical research and development companies and healthcare in the broadest sense of the term.
In 1989 a virtual twin of the Boeing 777 was created, a digital replica of the aircraft’s parts which made it possible to analyze data in real time and carry out tests to evaluate results, limitations and solutions on a 1-to-1 scale. All this has contributed to the progress of the aerospace industry.
Similar systems were later used in other industries, not least in the automotive and plant design industries. Now Dassault Systèmes looks beyond, helping to reshape the healthcare industry by covering experimentation, pharmacology and going as far as surgery.
The virtual twin and healthcare
If you could encapsulate the concept in a single sentence, it would sound like this: “Never again on the patient before.” That is, before experimenting on the person or intervening on his body, it is possible to carry out a series of simulations. The virtual twins – created through the 3DExperience platform – allow you to try, examine, model and cure without physically intervening in the first instance on humans, thus opening up new possibilities for biosciences, research, medicine and surgery.
A virtual model available to research, the medical industry, doctors and, last but not least, patients who can see and understand what would be difficult to simulate or explain with words. A researcher can visualize what impact a drug can have on the tissues of the human body, a patient can see how the surgery they are about to undergo will look like, and doctors can try surgery or test the results of a diagnostic procedure. They are just examples of the potential of virtualization of human beings and theirs organs, veins, blood vessels and nerves included.
Sanofi, with the technologies supplied by Dassault Systèmes, has shortened the time necessary for the creation of the anti-Covid vaccine, allowing, among other things, to simulate the diffusion of fluid and air particles, thus assessing the risks of propagation and contagion in different environments including offices, schools, theaters and even in a hospital like the one in Wuhan.
Dassault Systèmes has translated the experience gained in the industrial sector into healthcare, bringing safety protocols, precision, data collection and analysis tools and the potential for collaboration from manufactured objects to human life. Thus it is possible to have a digital twin of a man, a three-dimensional representation of each internal and external part of his body created with sensors which, moreover, allow the monitoring of therapeutic pathways, even post-operative. A combination of artificial intelligence, data collection, where it is generated and the collaborative experience of doctors and researchers.
The current projects are diverse and concern both the human body and pharmacological research as well as the creation of medical devices for remote diagnosis and treatment. Among these VORTHex, the first hall of radiotherapy in the world simulated in 3D.
The industry of the future
In 2020, Gartner, in listing the pillars that would support the change of the industry over the next 10 years, cited the same ones on which Dassault Systèmes is working: modeling, simulation, intelligent information and collaboration.
Il futuro per Dassault Systèmes
Company with headquarters in Vélizy-Villacoublay, a town of just over 20,000 inhabitants located in the Île-de-France region. Dassault Systèmes was founded in 1981, today the company employs over 20,000 people and has a turnover of 4.9 billion euros with over 300,000 customers located in 130 countries. Going forward, it will focus on consolidating its leadership in life sciences and healthcare, extending its strategic plans to infrastructure, cities and manufacturing industries.
Bernard Charlès, vice president and CEO of Dassault Systèmes, speaking briefly with the press, emphasized the sustainability of the innovation that is made possible by the simulations which do not involve the use of materials, allow to optimize the infrastructures and do not generate waste or waste.