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A disease-agnostic Digital Twin has been developed from an idea to a programme of national and international significance in the last year.

The ambitious project has been led by the West Yorkshire Innovation Hub, hosted by Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber and working in close partnership with West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

The SYNTHEKID testbed is the world’s first population health digital twin registered with the Digital Twin Consortium.

Partnerships have been formed with West Yorkshire ICB, Kidney Research UK and AstraZeneca, along with a coalition of universities and innovators.

It was developed in direct response to some of the most significant challenges facing health systems: rising chronic disease burden, widening health inequalities, and national policy priorities around prevention and early intervention, shaped throughout by clinical, academic, government and industry stakeholders from across West Yorkshire.

Amy Lochtie, West Yorkshire Innovation Hub Director at Health Innovation Network Yorkshire & Humber said:

“The power of collaboration is at the heart of this pioneering approach to innovation. By uniting Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, the NHS, academia, the charity sector, and industry, we have a unique opportunity to transform the outlook for people living with chronic kidney disease, while accelerating the ambitions set out in the 10 Year Plan.

“Recognition by the Digital Twin Consortium, with West Yorkshire selected as one of only eight international testbeds, is a powerful endorsement of the region’s innovative spirit and collaborative strength. It highlights the ability of our health and care partnership to lead on world-class solutions that can make a real difference to population health.”

The programme is designed to simulate how conditions develop across whole populations, enabling earlier intervention, more effective resource allocation, and services designed around how disease actually behaves rather than how it presents at the point of crisis.

West Yorkshire ICB Medical Director Dr James Thomas said:

“The promise of the use of digital twin technology is that we can move from reacting to anticipating and simulating what’s likely to happen and intervening before it does. West Yorkshire is proving that it’s not a distant ambition and we are leading the way, working across boundaries to make a real difference for patients, communities, and our workforce.”

Progress has been built on structured partnership working. Kidney Research UK and AstraZeneca have both committed to formal collaboration agreements, contributing scientific and research expertise alongside the NHS clinical knowledge embedded in the programme from the outset.

Academic institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises are active participants in a coalition convened by the Hub, which we continue to coordinate across the system.

The potential to support reductions in avoidable illness, address inequalities in health outcomes, and reduce long-term demand on NHS services sits at the core of the programme’s design and directly aligns with both governmental priorities and the clinical needs identified by partners across the region.

In March 2026, SYNTHEKID was presented at the Digital Twin Consortium’s meeting in Washington DC and has been showcased at the Royal Society of Medicine, recognition that partnership-driven, NHS-led innovation of this kind has a credible place on the international stage.