As the UK’s first ‘digital-first’ hospital, the New University Hospital Monklands is breaking new ground, with a digital twin at the heart of this innovation. Paul Cooper, director at Wallace Whittle and lead on MEP design, explores how smart data, live building insights, and real-time simulation are shaping Monklands, and creating a blueprint for the future of healthcare estates. He examines how digital twins help make smarter energy, maintenance, and operational decisions, and what the industry can learn from delivering this technology at scale in one of the most complex built environments.
I've had a front-row seat to how digital innovation is reshaping healthcare estates management. Monklands is set to be the UK's first digital-first hospital, and we are pioneering the use of digital twin technology to revolutionise how the facility is planned, built and operated.
Our role in the project has given us unique insights into how early integration of building services with digital twin technology can unlock significant efficiencies and support operational excellence in a complex healthcare environment.
Digital twins are not simply detailed 3D models. They are dynamic, data-integrated digital mirrors of real buildings and systems, updated in real-time. In the context of Monklands, a digital twin will allow estates teams to monitor infrastructure performance, simulate decisions before acting, and identify opportunities to optimise operations. This means staff will be able to track energy consumption, monitor maintainable assets, and predict the impact of operational choices before committing resources. In a hospital setting, where safety, cost control and efficiency are all paramount, this capability is critical.
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