Language matters: the ‘digital twin’ metaphor in health and medicine

Abstract

Towards an ethics of digital twins in medicine, Mattias Braun considers several important bioethical issues in relation to the use of digital twin simulations in health and medical contexts.He focuses on the ways these simulations are used or proposed to be deployed in these domains, including to what extent they are a 'true' or 'real' representation of human bodies.In this response, I want to take a step back and delve into the metaphor of the 'digital twin'.I consider the implications of using this metaphor in the context of medical care and how this choice of language participates in what science and technology scholars term the 'sociomaterial imaginaries' that are used to support and promote novel technologies. 1nguage is important.It matters.The choice of language is both symbolic and persuasive.It intervenes in political and policy debates and research and health care funding decisions. 1It has material effects and affects: to some of which Braun has gestured in his piece.The choice of words and phrases signify what we give priority to when diagnosing or treating illness and disease.These choices influence how novel technologies may be incorporated into health care: or alternatively, challenged or resisted.How we use language to represent elements of human fleshly bodies, the illness and disease to which they are vulnerable and health care is both reflective and constitutive of current sociocultural preoccupations. 2It shapes how we understand our bodies and make sense of illness and disease. 3

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