Digital twins in geriatrics and gerontology: Applications, challenges, and future directions

The global population is ageing at an unprecedented rate, creating substantial pressures on healthcare systems to deliver personalised, proactive, and cost-effective care for older adults. Digital twin (DT) technology, where dynamic virtual replicas of physical entities are continuously updated through real-time data, has emerged as a transformative tool in precision medicine. Despite its growing application across clinical specialties, its specific utility within geriatrics and gerontology remains underexplored in the academic literature.

This narrative review aims to synthesise existing evidence on the applications of digital twin technology in geriatric and gerontological care, examine associated challenges and identify future research priorities.

A narrative review methodology was employed, with a systematic search of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore databases covering publications from January 2014 to December 2025. Studies were selected based on relevance to digital twins, ageing populations, or geriatric clinical domains, with data synthesised thematically.

Digital twins demonstrate significant potential benefit across multiple geriatric domains, with use in cardiovascular monitoring, fall prevention, dementia management, polypharmacy optimisation, and chronic disease self-management. Key enablers include advances in Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and electronic health records. Persistent challenges include data privacy concerns, interoperability deficits, computational costs, and ethical questions surrounding autonomy and consent in cognitively impaired populations.

Digital twin technology holds considerable promise for revolutionising geriatric and gerontological care, by enabling hyper-personalised clinical decision-making, predictive risk management, and remote patient monitoring. Translating this potential into practice requires focused investment in regulatory frameworks, equitable access infrastructure, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Future research should prioritise standardisation, caregiver integration, and longitudinal validation studies within older adult populations.