A Digital Twin Framework for Monitoring Patient Journeys in Emergency Departments

A Digital Twin (DT) is a virtual representation of a physical system continuously updated with real-time data for monitoring purposes. In Emergency Departments (EDs), patient journeys are defined by timestamped events that delineate care stages such as triage and evaluation. Traditional methods relying on manual or retrospective records often lead to delayed or inaccurate insights. This paper presents a DT framework for real-time monitoring of patient journeys in EDs, leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing technologies. Key clinical events—such as arrivals and transitions—are detected by IoT sensors, processed locally, and visualized using the FlexSim simulation platform. The framework was validated on testbed hardware to assess its feasibility under real-world conditions. Results demonstrate high timestamp accuracy, reliable event detection, and sub-second latency. These findings confirm the viability of the proposed DT architecture for supporting real-time decision-making and enhancing operational visibility in EDs.