Joint Cardiovascular–Musculoskeletal Digital Twin Workshop
In January, the Precision Musculoskeletal Care team organised the joint Cardiovascular–Musculoskeletal Digital Twin Workshop, co-organised by Professors Gregg Slabaugh, Costantino Pitzalis and Anthony Mathur.
The workshop brought together clinicians, scientists, and engineers to explore how digital twin technologies, already under development in cardiology, could be applied to musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA).
During the workshop, Professor Gregg Slabaugh, Dr Laura Bevis, Dr Caroline Roney, Professor Anthony Mathur and Professor Costantino Pitzalis introduced the concept of digital twins and showcased examples from ongoing cardiovascular projects. They also fostered a shared understanding of what a digital twin could mean in the MSK context and encouraged discussion and idea generation around potential opportunities, collaborations, and next steps for MSK digital twin development within the NIHR Barts BRC.
By the end of the workshop, participants had gained a clearer picture of current digital twin capabilities, developed a common vocabulary across domains, and generated initial ideas for how this approach might benefit MSK research and patient care.