Digital twins in pulmonary medicine: a scoping review of applications, benefits, and challenges

Digital twins, a newly emerging technology, are increasingly used in pulmonary medicine across various aspects of prognosis, diagnosis, and therapy. Cognition and awareness of the applications, benefits, and challenges of digital twins in pulmonary medicine are paramount in shaping future efforts by healthcare stakeholders. This study aims to map the existing literature and conduct a narrative synthesis of these determinants to provide an in-depth understanding of this topic.

This scoping review was carried out in accordance with PRISMA-ScR. Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and IEEE Xplore were searched from their inception until January 30, 2026, in conjunction with a manual search. The English papers, original research papers, and conference papers were considered. A validated data extraction form was utilized to obtain relevant data from the existing literature. The results were presented in tables, figures, descriptive statistics, and narrative synthesis.

Eight studies met the inclusion criteria. A total of 41 applications, 37 benefits, and 28 challenges of digital twins in pulmonary medicine were identified. Applications are primarily focused on clinical monitoring, decision support and modeling, mechanistic modeling, technical/data and AI integration, intervention simulation, and disease management.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current applications, benefits, and challenges of digital twins in pulmonary medicine. Mapping the existing evidence highlights the growing role of digital twins in patient monitoring, personalized care, and clinical decision support. The findings also identify critical barriers to the development of digital twins in this field. These insights can guide researchers, clinicians, healthcare organizations, and policymakers in prioritizing future research, developing implementation strategies, and supporting the safe integration of digital twins into pulmonary care.