SIMTWIN
Digitisation has an impact on even the most fundamental concepts in medicine and public health, including our ideas of health and illness, embodiment, vulnerability and controllability. Among the emerging technologies driving this paradigm shift is that of Digital Twins (DT), which presents exceptional challenges to healthcare governance, raising ethical and societal issues of which our understanding is still rudimentary. DT may be empowering but could also exacerbate the vulnerability of both individual patients and the population at large. There are substantial gaps in our understanding of whether these new forms of artificial intelligence-driven health simulations provide new ways of engaging with experiences of human vulnerability, or whether they in fact introduce new forms of harm.
In this context, SIMTWIN will be the first project systematically identifying and examining the ethical and societal implications of the use of DT in healthcare. In doing so, SIMTWIN will promote our understanding of and practical approaches to new forms of simulation and prediction of health trajectories. SIMTWIN’s central objective is to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the normative challenges implied in order to develop an integrated theory of health simulations.
Team
Get to know the researchers currently working on the SIMTWIN project.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Braun
Chair
Dr. Andrew Barnhardt
Researcher
Nisa Büyükyıldırım
Researcher
Giuseppe Comerci
Researcher
Emma Pett
Student Researcher
Pauline Pett
Student Researcher
Anna Lene Strauss
Student Researcher
Publications
Here you find a selected list of the latest publications of the group.
2025
Braun, Matthias
How predictive medicine leads to solidarity gaps in health6
In: npj Digital Medicine
DOI: 10.1038/s41746-025-01497-2
Barnhart, A. J., Comerci, G., Braun, M.
Bytes the Dust: Normative Notions in Decommissioning Digital Doppelgängers7
In: AJOB
DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2024.2441708
Barnhart, A. J.
Beyond Pathology8
In: AJOB Neuroscience
DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2024.2438005
2024
Braun, M., Meacham, D.
A Plea for (In)Human-centred AI9
In: Philosophy & Technology
DOI: 10.1007/s13347-024-00785-1
Krauss, D., Engel, L., Ott, T., Bräunig, J., Richer, R., Gambietz, M., Albrecht, N., Hille, EM., Ullmann, I., Braun, M., Dabrock, P., Kölpin, A., Koelewijn, AD., Eskofier, BM., Vossiek, M.
A Review and Tutorial on Machine Learning- Enabled Radar-Based Biomedical Monitoring10
In: IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
DOI: 10.1109/OJEMB.2024.3397208
Braun, M., Hummel, P.
Is Digital Sovereignty normatively desirable?11
In: Information, Communication and Society
DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2024.2332624
Hummel P., Braun M., Samhammer D., Bischoff S., Fasching P., Dabrock P.
Perspectives of Patients and Clinicians on Big Data and AI in Health. A Comparative Empirical Investigation12
In: AI & SOCIETY
DOI: 10.1007/s00146-023-01825-8
Earp B. D., Porsdam Mann S., Allen J., Salloch S., Suren V., Jongsma K., Braun M., Wilkinson D., Sinnott-Armstrong W., Rid A., Wendler D., Savulescu J.
A Personalized Patient Preference Predictor for Substituted Judgments in Healthcare: Technically Feasible and Ethically Desirable13
In: American Journal of Bioethics
DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2023.2296402
2023
Hille EM., Hummel P., Braun M.
Meaningful Human Control over AI for Health? A Review14
In: Journal of Medical Ethics 0 (2023)
DOI: 10.1136/jme-2023-109095
Braun M., Bleher H., Hille EM., Krutzinna J.
Tackling Structural Injustices: On the Entanglement of Visibility and Justice in Emerging Technologies
In: American Journal of Bioethics 23/7
DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2023.2207514
Bleher H., Braun M.
Reflections on Putting AI Ethics into Practice: How Three AI Ethics Approaches Conceptualize Theory and Practice
In: Science and Engineering Ethics 29/21
DOI: 10.1007/s11948-023-00443-3
Braun M., Dabrock P., Kieslich K., Siewert S.
Synthetic Biology and the Question of Public Participation
In: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-16004-2
2022
Braun M.
Digitale Zwillinge und Verschiebungen im Verhältnis von Gesundheit und Krankheit15
In: Zeitschrift für medizinische Ethik 68, 209-222.
DOI: 10.14623/zfme.2022.2.209 222
Braun M., Hummel, P.
Data Justice and Data Solidarity
In: Cell Patterns 2 (2022)
DOI: 10.1007/s43681-022-00135-x.
Bleher H., Braun M.
Diffused responsibility: attributions of responsibility in the use of AI-driven clinical decision support systems
In: AI and Ethics (2022),747-761
ISSN: 2730-5961
DOI: 10.1007/s43681-022-00135-x
Braun M., Krutzinna J.
Digital twins and the ethics of health decision-making concerning children
In: Cell Patterns 3 (2022)
ISSN: 2666-3899
DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2022.100469
Glasze G., Cattaruzza A., Douzet F., Dammann F., Bertran MG., Bômont C., Braun M., Danet D., Desforges A., Géry A., Grumbach S., Hummel P., Limonier K., Münßinger M., Nicolai F., Pétiniaud L., Winkler J., Zanin C.
Contested Spatialities of Digital Sovereignty
In: Geopolitics (2022), 1-40
ISSN: 1465-0045
DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2022.2050070
Hille EM., Braun M.
Alles privat? Zur Ethik von Public Health und neuen Technologien
In: Public Health Forum (2022), 44-47
ISSN: 0944-5587
DOI: 10.1515/pubhef-2021-0130
2021
Braun M.
Ethics of Digital Twins. Four challenges16
In: Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (2021), 579-580
DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2021-107675
Braun M.
Represent me - please! Towards an ethics of digital twins in medicine
In: Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (2021), 394-400
DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2020-106134
Braun M., Bleher H., Hummel P.
A leap of Faith. Is there a formula for “trustworthy” AI?
In: Hastings Center Report 51 (2021), 17-22
DOI: 10.1002/hast.1207
Hummel P., Braun M., Tretter M., Dabrock, P.
Data Sovereignty. A Review
In: Big Data and Society (2021)
DOI: 10.1177/2053951720982012
Ethics and Governance of Emerging Technologies
Here you will soon learn more about the research hub "ethics and governance of emerging technologies"
Contact
Prof. Dr. Matthias Braun
Links
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/en/faculty/systematic-theology/systematic-theology-and-ethics/team/mb
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/en/faculty/systematic-theology/systematic-theology-and-ethics/team/ab
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/en/faculty/systematic-theology/systematic-theology-and-ethics/team/gc
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/de/fakultaet/systematische-theologie/systematische-theologie-und-ethik/veranstaltungen/aktuelle-veranstaltungen/lunch-series-4
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/de/fakultaet/systematische-theologie/systematische-theologie-und-ethik/veranstaltungen/aktuelle-veranstaltungen/zweite-vernetzungstagung-systematische-theologie
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-025-01497-2
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265161.2024.2441708
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21507740.2024.2438005
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-024-00785-1
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10520876
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2332624
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-023-01825-8
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265161.2023.2296402
- https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2023/09/20/jme-2023-109095
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362076561_Digitale_Zwillinge_und_Verschiebungen_im_Verhaltnis_von_Gesundheit_und_Krankheit
- https://jme.bmj.com/content/48/9/579
- https://www.noemamag.com/a-digital-twin-might-just-save-your-life/
- https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/universitaet/presse-kommunikation/podcasts/episoden-archiv
- https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/mein-digitaler-zwilling-und-ich-interview-mit-dem-sozialethiker-matthias-braun-dlf-2bb14ff5-100.html
- https://ga.de/news/wissen-und-bildung/regional/bonner-ethiker-forscht-ueber-doppelgaenger-aus-dem-computer_aid-81139599
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/en/faculty/systematic-theology/systematic-theology-and-ethics/projects/projects
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/en/faculty/systematic-theology/systematic-theology-and-ethics/publications
- https://www.etf.uni-bonn.de/en/faculty/systematic-theology/systematic-theology-and-ethics/ethics