Digital twin maps NZ population for public health planning

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science has developed a digital twin that simulates New Zealand’s entire population and has been used to study the country’s resilience to measles outbreaks.

Data science & AI lead Alvaro Orsi presented on the platform, called ALMA (Aotearoa Large-scale Multi-agent Platform) at Digital Health Week NZ in November 2025.

He said the twin creates what researchers call 'virtual Kiwis', built from aggregated census and government data. This twin population enables researchers to model public health scenarios without tracking real people, which can then inform public policy decisions and emergency planning.

Using artificial intelligence and predictive modelling, the platform can simulate disease spread by monitoring interactions between virtual kiwis across households, schools, supermarkets, and other places.

Health authorities can then assess the impact of various response strategies, such as vaccination campaigns or social distancing measures.

The research team has already collaborated with public health agencies to study New Zealand's resilience to measles outbreaks within the interactive 3D model of Aotearoa.

The ‘virtual kiwis’ are created with data from Statistics New Zealand, particularly census data and information from the Integrated Data Infrastructure. Researchers assign households, occupations, and daily activities based on real-world patterns extracted from workforce surveys, time use surveys, and consumer datasets.

"The goal is that the attributes and the activities that we assign to these virtual individuals will resemble those of real people," Orsi explained.

Users of the platform can explore specific suburbs and facilities and look at infection rates at locations such as cafes.

Orsi said an embedded AI assistant allows users to navigate and interrogate ALMA with natural language queries.

The PHF Science research team has also created a digital twin for Tonga to study climate change resilience. 

Image: Pic from PHF Science website

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