Digital twin of analogue man: development of a computational modelling platform to assess heart-vessel interaction in humans

The concept of using ‘twins’ is not new. For many years, plastic replicas of skeletons (i.e. ‘physical twins’) have been used in the classroom as well as in the general practitioner’s office to explain aspects of the human skeletal anatomy. Physical twins were also used during NASA’s Project Apollo in which two identical spacecraft were built, one to remain on the basis, which allowed engineers to recreate the conditions of the spacecraft during missions. Digital twin technology is a novel concept originating from manufacturing industry. A digital twin refers to a virtual or computational model containing a comprehensive physical and functional description of a component, product or system.

In this thesis, we applied the digital twin concept to cardiovascular research by developing and evaluating a computational modelling platform to assess heart-vessel interaction. The developed models were employed in two use-cases concerning patient-specific modelling: 1) non-invasive computational methods to allow screening for cardiac abnormalities and 2) non-invasive identification of arterial wall mechanical properties to assess the effect of (novel) vascular drugs on cardiovascular system dynamics.