A review on digital twin technology in healthcare

Digital twin technology is the union of three systems - the physical, the virtual and the interconnecting link layer. It acts as a replica and provides real-time representation of real-world physical objects in a virtual format. Digital twins are promising when applied in healthcare. This brief review gives a schematic overview of the current state of digital twin, specifically in the healthcare industry with gaps to overcome the challenges in building smart healthcare ecosystem. A concise synthesis of the following aspects of digital twin provides a cohesive whole in this paper: new capabilities and functions of the digital twin in healthcare, technologies that support digital twins, with its applications. This study motivated by the current COVID-19 pandemic, focuses on the application of the Digital Twin technology in healthcare.