On 28th May 2026, the TARGET project hosted the cluster activity “Toward the Virtual Human: Multi-Organ Digital Twins for Cardiovascular Medicine” during its annual meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece. The event was organised in collaboration with the Horizon Europe sister projects VITAL and GEMINI and took place in hybrid format, at CERTH – Centre for Research & Technology Hellas and online.

The session was a great success in terms of attendance, bringing together around 115 participants, with approximately 85 joining online and almost 30 attending in person. The strong turnout reflected the growing interest in digital twin technologies and their potential role in the future of cardiovascular and stroke care.

The event aimed to create a shared space for exchange between the three projects, all of which are contributing to the broader vision of developing virtual human technologies for personalised medicine. While each project approaches this challenge from a different perspective, the cluster activity highlighted important connections between cardiovascular modelling, stroke care, rehabilitation, clinical decision support, in silico trials and hybrid digital twin approaches.

After a short welcome, the programme opened with a series of expert talks showcasing ongoing work across TARGET, VITAL and GEMINI.

Several contributions focused on how digital twins can support cardiovascular and stroke-related applications. Éric Lluch from Siemens Healthineers AG presented work on a digital twin of the heart for atrial fibrillation prediction, while Lucian-Mihai Itu from Siemens SRL discussed the development of a digital twin of the brain for stroke care. From the TARGET project, Sandra Ortega-Martorell of Liverpool John Moores University presented an AI-driven digital twin for atrial fibrillation and stroke, further underlining TARGET’s contribution to personalised prediction and decision support in AF-related stroke pathways.

The session also broadened the discussion beyond single-organ models. Finbar Argus from the University of Auckland presented VITAL’s multiscale framework, while Alessandro Giudici and Mathias Peirlinck from Maastricht University addressed the incorporation of arterial growth and remodelling in cardiovascular virtual human twin models. These contributions highlighted the importance of modelling biological processes across different scales, from tissues and organs to patient-level predictions.

In addition, the programme explored how digital twins and in silico approaches can support clinical research and care planning. Oscar Camara Rey from Universitat Pompeu Fabra presented work on in silico trials of device-drug treatments for cardioembolic stroke prevention, while Konstantinos Risvas from CERTH introduced a neuromusculoskeletal digital twin for rehabilitation prognosis, showing how these technologies may contribute to patient recovery and rehabilitation planning.

Further perspectives were provided by Sven Hirsch from Zurich University of Applied Sciences, who discussed the challenges of hybrid digital twinning of intracranial aneurysm disease, and Mariano Vazquez from ELEM Biotech, who presented work toward a virtual human twin to support the management of patients with cardiac amyloidosis. The expert talks concluded with Ivan Olier from Liverpool John Moores University, who addressed the broader theme of hybrid digital twins in healthcare.

Following the presentations, a roundtable discussion and Q&A session provided an opportunity for participants to reflect on common challenges and future directions. The discussion touched on key issues such as validation, clinical adoption, interoperability, integration of different modelling approaches, and the need to build trust among healthcare professionals, patients and decision-makers.

The cluster activity showed that the path toward the “virtual human” is not limited to one discipline, technology or clinical area. Rather, it depends on collaboration between computational scientists, clinicians, engineers, industry partners, patients and policy stakeholders. By bringing together TARGET, VITAL and GEMINI, the event helped strengthen links between complementary initiatives and reinforced the value of working together to accelerate innovation in digital health.

The meeting also confirmed the importance of digital twin technologies as a promising direction for personalised healthcare, particularly in cardiovascular medicine, stroke prevention and rehabilitation. For TARGET, the event represented an important opportunity to position its work within a broader European research landscape and to contribute to the shared effort of bringing virtual twin-based solutions closer to clinical practice.

The recording of the event will soon be available on the TARGET YouTube channel.