USU Spearheads Hospital 2.0 Summit: Pioneering Digital Twin and AI Integration in Healthcare

Revolutionizing healthcare: how the Hospital 2.0 Summit is pioneering the integration of digital twin technology and AI to transform hospital operations and patient care.

September 10, 2025 by Hadiyah Brendel

The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF), recently hosted the groundbreaking Hospital 2.0 Summit: Creating the Digital Twin on August 11-12, 2025 in Bethesda, Maryland. The two-day event convened 72 thought leaders, innovators, and stakeholders from healthcare, technology, and industry to discuss how to revolutionize hospital operations and patient care using digital twin technologies, machine learning, and process optimization.

The summit aimed to promote collaborative innovation, explore various digital twin applications, and advance ethical AI integration in healthcare. Attendees and speakers, including representatives from civilian and military healthcare, USU, the Defense Health Agency (DHA), and the DoD Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), engaged in discussions on critical topics like data digitization and standardization, overcoming implementation barriers, and incorporating human values into AI tools.

Keynote speaker Dr. Eric Elster, dean of the USU F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, opened the summit with a presentation on "The Digital Transformation of Healthcare." Elster stressed the university's commitment to advancing medical care through digital innovation as well as how he anticipated this technology will impact the future of the MHS, stating, "Digital twinning will transform hospital care - for providers and patients - and we are excited to be driving innovation that will advance medical care for Warfighters and their families."

Cmdr. (Dr.) Jacob Cole, assistant dean for Digital Transformation, reflected on the summit's significance, stating "The Digital Twinning Summit was an important milestone for the Military Health System." "By bringing together clinicians, technologists, and leaders, we explored how digital twin technology can help us model complex healthcare environments, improve decision-making, and ultimately deliver better care to service members and their families" he continued. Cole further emphasized how the summit highlighted the power of collaboration and set the stage for a future where digital innovation is central to readiness and resilience.

The summit focused on defining and applying digital twins. A digital twin is an exact virtual replica of a physical asset, process, or system, continuously connected to its real-world counterpart through data. These models allow for real-time monitoring, scenario planning, and predictive analysis.

• Optimizing Hospital Operations: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) SimLEARN program showcased their digital twin application for optimizing patient flow and facility design, particularly for aging infrastructure. Booz Allen Hamilton also presented its work on digital twin prototypes for improving operating room layouts, a critical "choke point" in hospitals.
• Ethical AI and Human Values: A critical session led by Dr. Amy Summerville of Kairos Research highlighted the importance of incorporating diverse human values into AI decisions. Her presentation, "Incorporating Human Values in Off-The-Loop Tools," emphasized that "better decisions" in complex domains like military medical triage require more than just universal AI principles.

USU President Dr. Jonathan Woodson summarized the key takeaways for the Military Health System (MHS), emphasizing that digital disruption in healthcare is here and demands a fundamental re-evaluation of current practices. Woodson stated, "As much as we have been talking for years about digital technology disrupting healthcare, it is really here. We're going to have to fundamentally rethink some of the ways we thought about doing business, generating information, delivering health care and our old oversight systems given the speed at which AI is being rolled out". Woodson outlined several crucial steps for the MHS:

• Data Systems: Immediately improve data systems across silos and enhance data governance.
• Workforce Upskilling: Upskill the MHS workforce to effectively use AI tools and foster trust between functional and technical experts.
• Ethical Oversight: Develop rigorous frameworks for post-deployment analysis of AI systems and create standards for their introduction into healthcare.
• Collaboration: Foster close collaboration with the DoD Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) for data democratization and interoperability.

The summit underscored that while challenges exist, the path forward involves strategic partnerships, continuous learning, and a commitment to leveraging technology for safer, more efficient, and veteran-centered healthcare. The summit is expected to create a shared vision, a roadmap for implementation, and the formation of working groups to tackle specific challenges.