Michael UngarCEO of the Industry 4.0 Club

Transforming Epilepsy Treatment with Digital Twin Technology

4 Aug 2025 · 2 min

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1:31

In this segment, the speaker—who suffers from epilepsy that is unresponsive to medication—describes how a digital‑twin style, patient‑specific brain model can be used to run virtual "what‑if" surgical simulations. By mirroring the way architects simulate building performance and retrofits, the digital twin lets neurosurgeons explore the consequences of cutting, drilling, or implanting in a particular patient’s brain (referencing a patient named Todd) before any actual operation. This personalized modeling aims to guide more precise, less risky invasive interventions for epilepsy patients whose seizures cannot be controlled with drugs alone.

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I have an epileptic condition that is in need of something a bit more invasive than traditional medications. Medications alone wasn't enough. So as I mentioned, data is data. By having this digital twin type application, we're allowed to do— it allows my neurosurgeons and people that are looking at my data the ability to do what-if scenarios. And same thing like we do with buildings. So you do these what-if simulations to say, how do I optimize my building performance before I actually design and build the building? For an existing facility, which is about 90% of the marketplace, how do I retrofit those existing buildings to look at optimizing performance? So you can do these what-if scenarios before you actually make the retrofit. In a human situation, being able to do these virtual simulations of what if I cut here, what if I cut here, what if I drill here, it gives the neurosurgeons the ability to say, okay, well, if we make a cut here or we insert something here, these are going to be the ramifications based on Todd's personal scenario. So by having that digital twin of the brain, it allows them to do a lot of different applications of personalized brain modeling.