A Narrative Review of Virtual Human Twins (VHTs) of Healthcare Professionals

This paper presents a narrative review on Virtual Human Twins (VHTs) applied to represent and support the roles of healthcare professionals in clinical contexts. A systematic search was performed in PubMed and Scopus. Among 32 reviewed studies, the VHTs are primarily designed to assist patients (i.e. emotional support, promoting healthy behaviors, etc.) and to support physicians in patient monitoring and clinical decision-making. Most of VHTs are realized by leveraging Artificial Intelligence, in particular, Natural Language Processing. Generally, VHTs guarantee visual embodiment and are capable of multimodal interaction. However, no study has been found on a VHT specifically twinned to a particular therapist or clinician, despite the link between the VHT and its physical counterpart is considered a core element in the definition of VHT.