Prof. Dr. Sven Hirsch
How can we create engaging narratives about digital twins in healthcare?
Digital twins are more than technological systems. They also touch on human, aesthetic, ethical, and societal dimensions. What changes when we put people at the centre of the digital twin — and how might this technology affect our relationships, identities, and society? We need to bring different disciplines together to open up a dialogue around this complex technology, creating space to question, imagine, and shape possible futures for digital twins in healthcare.
Turning ideas into narratives
In a workshop we co-created narratives around specific digital twins, using concrete digital twin examples from the EU GEMINI project to explore how these technologies might enter everyday healthcare and human experience. Through storytelling, an abstract future became more concrete. The participants explored different perspectives, challenged assumptions, and brought potential opportunities and concerns to the surface.
The narratives raised questions such as:
- Who is represented by a digital twin — and who might be left out?
- How could patients and healthcare professionals experience these systems?
- What happens when a digital representation becomes part of decisions about a person?
- How might digital twins change the way we understand ourselves and others?
A live cartoonist captured the workshop as it unfolded, turning ideas and discussions into visual snapshots.
The drawings recorded not only key ideas, but also challenges, tensions, connections, and open questions. They made the evolving conversation visible and gave participants another way to reflect on what they were discovering together.The cartoons became a visual trace of the workshop — capturing moments that were difficult to summarise in words and questions that did not yet have clear answers.
Sven Hirsch realized this project while being a scientific fellow at the IAS – Institute for Advanced Studies (University of Amsterdam) with the support of the GEMINI consortium. His fellowship was supported by the co-applicants Alfons Hoekstra, Henk Marquering, and Mike Lees.
Credits:
- Sven Hirsch – Idea, Concept and Implementation
- Femke Van Heerikhuizen – Illustrations
- Sanne Bloemink – Journalist Reflection
- Maartje Raijmakers – Methodology Advisory
- Participants: Wiktor Olszewski, Giulia Pederzani, Gábor Závodszky, Harpo t’Hart, Wiktor Olszewki, Tirsa van Duijl, René Freichel, Anna van Oosterzee, Evi-Ann van Dis, Bernd Brand, Rosa Rooduijn, Charles Majoie
- Editing: Ayla Durrer, Ekaterina Golubeva
