A Surreal Experience in Rome

On 27 February, I found myself in Rome experiencing something truly surreal. I attended a conference organised by AISDET, the Italian Association for Digital Health and Telemedicine, under the umbrella of One Health, a consortium that brings together three ministries: the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Agriculture.

The main topic? The importance of washing hands.

At first, I thought it was a joke set up by my Roman friends—some kind of hidden camera prank with actors dressed in formal attire. But no, these were actual doctors, professors, and scientists, discussing the subject with absolute seriousness and conviction.

I listened carefully, trying to understand the link between hand hygiene and digital medicine or telemedicine. What logic had led to this being a central theme in a conference about technological innovation in healthcare?

The answer lay in infection data.

To control hospital infection rates—an atomic disaster in terms of deaths and costs—besides monitoring the quantity of solvents used and the number of staff involved, they had decided to track who was washing their hands.

From that old perspective, the reasoning makes sense.

But it is completely wrong.

The Digital Twin Eliminates the Problem at Its Root

With the Digital Twin and its predictive capabilities, hospital admissions should drop by 70%.

On an individual level, the predictive accuracy of the Digital Twin might seem empirical—we would theoretically need two monozygotic twins, apply the Digital Twin to only one, and observe who gets sick first, yielding a single data point. However, on a population scale, the data would be far more precise and much less empirical.

And let’s talk about automation.

In 2025—meaning right now—mass production of robots designed to replace 70% of human caregivers has begun.

• A robot costs $40,000—the equivalent of the gross annual salary of a full-time worker (8 hours a day, 5 days a week) in a low-income country like Italy.
• It pays for itself in 4 months, considering the cost of overtime, night shifts, and public holidays.
• Disinfecting a robot is automatic.

So, 70% of infections will automatically disappear. This will lead to further cost savings and, most importantly, fewer deaths in healthcare facilities adopting robotics.

Add the Digital Twin, and infections would drop by another 70%.

Final result? A 91% reduction in infections—without washing our hands any more than we already do today.

The Future Is Not Ahead—We Must Already Be There

There is no such thing as smart or foolish thinking—there are old perspectives and new perspectives.

We must not just look forward; we must be ahead. Otherwise, we risk viewing the new world from the outside, rather than from within it.

It’s a simple concept, but difficult to apply. You cannot discuss cars unless you’ve driven one for at least a week, perhaps even taking a road trip. Otherwise, you risk wasting hours arguing about the colour of the bodywork—a detail I rarely even remember.

Two Brilliant Minds in a Black-and-White Congress

Amidst this black-and-white conference, two bright lights stood out:

• Dr Antonia Ricci, General Director at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie.
• Dr Francesca Di Gaudio, newly appointed General Director of the Istituto Zooprofilattico of Palermo.

Dr Ricci, an ornithology expert—setting aside 1970s barracks humour—debunked the myth that closing borders during a pandemic makes any real difference.

Every year, millions of birds migrate, with numbers ranging from 50 to 70 billion. Some species are the equivalent of flying rats, acting as highly efficient disease vectors. The species jump is a constant risk.

Dr Di Gaudio, meanwhile, delivered a refined perspective on food safety. She didn’t just talk about what we eat, but what our food eats—an incredibly relevant angle.

For those of us working with the Digital Twin, where sleep is the primary marker, in this case, the key marker is water—its quantity and quality.

The Next Pandemic: The Answer Is Already Here

So, the solution for fighting the next pandemic is crystal clear:

A Digital Twin optimising the body’s performance and dramatically strengthening the immune system.

Sic et simpliciter.

Sergio d’Arpa