Human Medical Data Bodies: Generating Bio-Digital Twins

In view of potential advancements in data-driven, ‘personalised’ medicine, individualised health data (body data, behavioural data as well as clinical and other data, e.g. nutritional data) have become the focus of social interest. In addition to the promise of optimised individual healthcare, the use of health data offers the potential for scientific progress and, not least, economic benefits. Above all, generative artificial intelligence will no longer only be involved in (co-)producing intellectual works or inventions. Rather, it could also be able to create ‘virtual human twins’ with the help of medical data, especially clinical data, as well as data collected by patients themselves (self-tracking).

The scientific objectives of the project group are to analyse the relationship between the data representation generated by digital twins and the human body, as well as the legal and ethical challenges that arise from it. The group will examine how digital twins could act as ‘data bodies’ with their own legal status and social efficacy and what effects this has on health data rights and access. An interdisciplinary approach will be taken to create a well-founded inventory of the phenomenon and to support current regulatory debates through targeted publications.

Principal Investigators

Prof. Dr. Malte-C. Gruber, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen | spokesperson | more information
Prof. Dr. Doris Schweitzer, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt | deputy | more information

Prof. Dr. Steffen Augsberg, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen | more information
Prof. Dr. Andreas Fischer-Lescano, LL.M (EUI), Universität Kassel | more information
Prof. Dr. Petra Gehring, Technische Universität Darmstadt | more information

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