EU’s Quantum Technologies Flagship Programs Set to Transform Medicine

(Phys.org) Medicine is starting to reap the benefits of the quantum realm. The EU’s Quantum Technologies Flagship program is developing a number of quantum technologies to transform medicine in particular. Several projects now underway to see how we could improve medical imaging or detect certain diseases more easily.
For example, the EU’s macQsimal is using small devices known as quantum sensors to revolutionize several areas—quantum-enabled atomic clocks, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and more precise electromagnetic radiation and gas concentration measurements. The project, which began in October 2018, hopes to bring their ideas to market as some of the first quantum-enabled technologies.
There may be other benefits as well, such as cardiac imaging—taking images of the heart to check for diseases—which could benefit greatly from these smaller and more accurate sensors, and drug discovery too—finding new drugs to address certain diseases. “Most probably there are much more applications in the medical field,” added Dr. Haesler.