Blockchain and Digital Twins for Smart Hospital Infrastructures

Abstract

The digital twin (DT) and blockchain are accelerating the digital transformation in healthcare. DTs provide the ability to develop real-time virtual models of patients, devices and hospital systems for simulation and optimization, while blockchain provides data security and provenance. However, libraries are still the underrepresented subject in such debates in spite of their knowledge in data stewardship, metadata control and digital preservation. This chapter suggests the Blockchain-Digital Twin-Library Integration Model (BDT-LIM), which describes the way libraries can become smart healthcare ecosystem partners. Libraries are able to store documentation under digital twins, metadata provenance, and long-term preservation and adhere to data practices that are in compliance with FAIR and GDPR. This framework transforms about the libraries as a center of ethical governance, through the fusion of library science, health informatics, and emerging technologies, libraries are re-imagined as places where safe, fair, and sustainable healthcare innovation is assured.