The future of precision medicine: Trends, innovations and impacts

A baby girl with a rare combination of congenital heart defects. Twin brothers born with their skulls fused together and their brains intertwined. A rugby player whose knee tendons weren’t where they were supposed to be.

These are real cases that test and, in fact, exceed the limits of traditional medicine. Real humans in need of personalized healthcare. Real-life examples of the future of precision medicine.

Precision medicine history 

While traditional medicine is malady-focused and is structured around treatments that work across large groups of people, precision medicine is all about making healthcare personal and tailored for your unique, individual circumstances.

Precision medicine is not exactly new. Instances of personalized healthcare can be traced back hundreds, if not thousands of years. But things really started getting exciting in the 1990s and early 2000s with the Human Genome Project, which mapped out all of the genes in the human body and advanced our understanding of how our unique genetics can affect our health. This knowledge helped doctors move away from the traditional “one-size-fits-all” approach and toward one-size-fits-one treatments. We now understand that while it may be an error in the genome that led to a unique heart defect, fixing it requires organ level personalization.

Today, with advancements in technology that allow for better imaging and data analysis, doctors can make smarter choices about how to treat their patients, leading to much better results. Precision medicine is changing the way we think about healthcare. Rather than just treating symptoms, the goal is to uncover the root causes of health issues and to provide personalized healthcare that empowers patients to take charge of their health.

What are trends in precision medicine?

1. Virtual twins: Scientifically accurate virtual twins of a patient’s individual organs, metabolism and cancerous cells allow doctors to simulate care scenarios for each patient, improving diagnosis and treatment. Because they are computer-friendly representations of real patients, they provide ground-truth in AI training sets.
2. AI: While personalized healthcare is characterized by focusing on a patient’s unique needs, AI is revolutionizing precision medicine by super-charging the ability to analyze vast amounts of patient data to create tailored treatment plans that enhance patient outcomes.
3. Data: Analyzing individual patient information, including genetic profiles, lifestyle factors and medical histories leads to more comprehensive understanding and more informed, personalized treatment plans that can lead to better patient outcomes.
4. In-silico clinical trials: In-silico clinical trials provide an ethical alternative to traditional testing by leveraging computational modeling simulation to create personalized, highly accurate models. They expedite time-to-market, increase patient safety and save costs in drug and medical device development. 
5. Patient autonomy: Increasingly, informed and demanding patients are becoming partners in their own healthcare, putting pressure on the industry to deliver improved patient- and physician-centric experiences.
6. Diversity: Diversity in personalized medicine is essential as it ensures that treatments are tailored to the unique genetic, cultural and social backgrounds of patients. By embracing diverse patient populations, healthcare providers can better understand variations in disease presentation and treatment responsiveness.
   

Innovations in precision medicine and their impacts 

At Dassault Systemes, we’re fortunate to work with and support innovators who are using virtual twin experiences to transform the way the human body is understood, diagnosed, treated and cured. From biosensors to biomimetics, from virtual twins of treatments to virtual twins of organs, these innovations in precision medicine are already changing the way we care for each other.

Here are some examples:

1. The Living Heart Project: Founded in 2014, The Living Heart Project unites cardiovascular researchers, educators, medical device developers, regulatory agencies, and cardiologists to create accurate personalized virtual twins of human hearts. This technology enhances our understanding of heart diseases and we’re extending it to other organs, aiming to advance precision medicine. By enabling personalized treatment plans and improving surgical outcomes, the project is transforming cardiovascular healthcare and paving the way for tailored interventions that significantly improve patient care.

2. LATTICE MEDICAL: A start-up in the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab accelerator, LATTICE MEDICAL has an innovative approach to breast reconstruction. They’re offering natural breast regeneration by using a bio-resorbable tissue engineering chamber that affixes patients’ own adipose tissues, regenerating what was lost in the mastectomy in 3-6 months. The objective is to create a more natural reconstruction, adapted to the individual patient rather than the more one-size-fits-all approach of traditional implants.

3. VORTHEx: VORTHEx, which stands for Virtual Oncology Radio Therapy Hartmann Experience, allows patients to experience their treatment in virtual reality through virtual simulations of radiotherapy sessions. This initiative is a collaboration between the H. Hartmann Institute of Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery and Dassault Systèmes. The concept is based on the idea that simulating radiotherapy in a virtual environment before it occurs, in reality, can help patients better understand their treatment. This approach aims to reduce stress and anxiety, ultimately improving their chances of overcoming the disease.

4. Corneat: An Israeli start-up taking part in the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab startup accelerator, Corneat Vision is on a mission to reduce corneal blindness with patented solutions for synthetic corneal tissue. They’re using biomimicry, which mimics biological processes and products, to create its artificial tissues. This approach reduces reliance on donated human corneas, which are in high demand and short supply.

5. MEDITWIN: An ambitious project that brings together 14 world-class partners and financial support from the French government, the MEDITWIN consortium is dedicated to developing virtual twins for medical practice to make healthcare safer and more accessible for all. Initially announced in 2023, the consortium is made up of seven university hospital institutes, several startups, Dassault Systemes and INRIA, the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology.

Virtual twins powering the future of precision medicine

Our vision for next-generation precision medicine is driven by transformative virtual twin experiences that embrace individual patients, hospitals and entire healthcare systems. By skillfully integrating multi-scale modeling, simulation and real-world data, we can profoundly revolutionize clinical decision-making, therapeutic design, healthcare delivery and public health management.

Imagine a future where virtual cardiac twins that combine genomic and imaging data to guide personalized treatments to get it right the first time. Or hospital twins that harness predictive analytics to enable team-based medicine or optimize precious resources. You can even picture system-wide twins that shape community strategies for pandemic responses.

Now imagine it is happening today. The cardiac care team in Boston uses realistic digital heart simulations – a virtual twin of a young patient’s heart, complete with their specific physiology – to plan and practice surgeries in the virtual world that yield precise, predictable and life-saving results in the real one. You don’t need to imagine medical staff in Brazil working with a London-based surgeon to use advanced VR technology to trial techniques they’d use across the seven surgeries it took to safely separate the twins. Vaccine development in record time? Don’t have to imagine that either. These real stories that show the power of virtual twins to improve personalized medicine. 

This paradigm shift empowers patients as valued partners in their healthcare, enhances provider efficiency, reduces costs and inspires innovation to meet pressing medical needs.