The idea of a systematic digital representation of the entire known human pathophysiology, which we could call the Virtual Human Twin, has been around for decades. To date, most research groups focused instead on developing highly specialised, highly focused patient-specific models able to predict specific quantities of clinical relevance. While it has facilitated harvesting the low-hanging fruits, this narrow focus is, in the long run, leaving some significant challenges that slow the adoption of digital twins in healthcare. This position paper lays the conceptual foundations for developing the Virtual Human Twin (VHT). The VHT is intended as a distributed and collaborative infrastructure, a collection of technologies and resources (data, models) that enable it, and a collection of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that regulate its use. The VHT infrastructure aims to facilitate academic researchers, public organisations, and the biomedical industry in developing and validating new digital twins in healthcare solutions with the possibility of integrating multiple resources if required by the specific context of use. Healthcare professionals and patients can also use the VHT infrastructure for clinical decision support or personalised health forecasting. As the European Commission launched the EDITH coordination and support action to develop a roadmap for the development of the Virtual Human Twin, this position paper is intended as a starting point for the consensus process and a call to arms for all stakeholders.

翻译：系统性地构建整个已知人类病理生理学的数字表示（可称为虚拟人类孪生）的概念已存在数十年。迄今为止，大多数研究团队专注于开发高度专业化、聚焦特定领域的患者特异性模型，以预测具有临床相关性的特定参数。尽管这种聚焦策略有助于快速收获初期成果，但从长远来看，这种狭隘的视角正遗留若干重大挑战，阻碍数字孪生在医疗领域的大规模应用。本立场论文旨在为开发虚拟人类孪生奠定概念基础。虚拟人类孪生被设想为一个分布式协作基础设施，包含支撑其运行的技术与资源（数据、模型）集合，以及规范其使用的标准操作程序体系。该基础设施旨在促进学术研究人员、公共组织及生物医学产业界，在必要时可根据具体应用场景的需求集成多种资源，开发并验证新型医疗数字孪生解决方案。医疗专业人员与患者亦可借助虚拟人类孪生基础设施实现临床决策支持或个性化健康预测。随着欧盟委员会启动“EDITH”协调与支持行动以制定虚拟人类孪生发展路线图，本文旨在作为共识流程的起点，并向所有利益相关方发出行动号召。