What Can Quantum Computing Do To Healthcare?

(Source: The Medical Futurist)

Quantum computing might bring supersonic drug design, in Silico clinical trials with virtual humans simulated ‘live’, full-speed whole genome sequencing and analytics, the movement of hospitals to the cloud, the achievement of predictive health, or the security of medical data via quantum uncertainty.

The story of how Google’s 54- qubit computer was able to complete a task in 200 seconds that Google estimated would take over 10,000 years on non-quantum, traditional computers is one of the biggest invention. It is leaping into the future by lighting speed.

What is quantum computing?

As Shohini Gose quantum physicist says in her TED talk, quantum physics describes the behaviour of atoms and fundamental particles, like electrons or photons. A quantum computer operates by controlling the behaviour of these particles, which is very different from the way our traditional computers work. It isn’t by chance that quantum computers don’t measure their performance in bits, but qubits – while the former resembles either ones or zeros, and thus the mathematical description of problems, the latter signifies states, which can simultaneously take up ones and zeros, or anything in-between. This means qubits have fluid identities or signify certain percentages and probabilities between two endpoints.

1) Supersonic drug design

Developing pharmaceuticals through lengthy and costly clinical trials is definitely passé: scientists and pharma companies started to experiment with alternative ways, such as using artificial intelligence, human organs-on-chips or in silico trials, to speed up the process and make drug discovery and development more cost-effective.

2) Sequencing and analysing DNA full speed

The last two decades saw radical changes in genetics and genomics. It took more than 15 years to crack the code of the human DNA: the Human Genome Project started in 1990, cost billions of dollars and could present its final results in 2006. As a contrast, by now, there are more than 2,000 genetic tests for human conditions – and direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies make it even possible to order them online. These tests enable patients to learn their genetic risks for disease and also help healthcare professionals to diagnose illness.

3) Creating the safest medical data systems ever

In her TED talk, Shohini Ghose mentioned the use of quantum uncertainty for encryption as one of the most probable applications of quantum computing. She believes it could be used for creating private keys for encrypting messages sent from one location to another – so that hackers could not copy the key perfectly due to quantum uncertainty. They would have to break the laws of quantum physics to hack such keys. Imagine that level of security with regards to sensitive medical information: electronic health records, genetic and genomic data, or any other private information that the health system generates about our bodies.

What if we apply it to practical solutions and we won’t be able to grasp anything from it? You could say that you are using hairdryers without understanding their operation, but would you be that relaxed if your doctor didn’t understand the prediction or recommended treatment that came from a quantum computer? How far should we go in relying on technology?