Developing valuable operational healthcare applications using quantum computing techniques

该项目将研究应用和商业利用量子计算技术的可行性，通过开发一个或多个软件应用程序来解决运营医疗保健用例（例如，手术室名单患者分配、紧急护理患者分类、社区护士访问时间表）。如果成功，该产品将能够服务于英国和国际医疗保健市场。该项目旨在利用新兴的量子计算技术在一个新的重要应用领域。在该项目中，我们将：*确定几个有价值的用例，这些用例将为患者提供更好的护理，并帮助医疗保健提供者（例如医院）更有效地组织患者活动，以最大限度地利用手术室、诊断设备和门诊咨询室等稀缺资源。*深入研究量子计算方法的潜力，通过进行技术评估来解决问题规模超出经典计算软件可以处理的规模的用例。*对针对目标用例开发经典量子应用的可行性进行全面的业务评估，特别是根据量子硬件/方法的发展速度，这可能是可能的。我们将在不同的量子硬件上探索一系列量子方法，寻求在当今技术上找到最佳性能。我们还将考虑如何最好地结合量子和经典方法，以最大限度地提高潜在应用的整体性能。这是一个高度创新的项目，结合了量子计算专家（应用量子计算和国家量子计算中心），医疗保健专家（PSC）和重要的最终用户参与者（汉普郡医院NHS基金会信托）。

The project will research the feasibility of applying and commercially exploiting quantum computing techniques to address operational healthcare use cases (e.g. theatre list patient allocation, urgent care patient triage, community nurse visit schedules) through the development of one or more software applications. If successful, the product will be capable of serving both the UK and international healthcare markets.The project seeks to exploit emerging quantum computing technology in a new and important area of application. In the project we will:* Identify several valuable use cases which will deliver improved care for patients and help healthcare providers, e.g. hospitals, organise their patient activity more efficiently to make the greatest possible use of scarce resources such as operating theatres, diagnostic equipment and outpatient consulting rooms.* Investigate in depth the potential for quantum computing methods to address the use cases for problem sizes are that beyond the sizes that can be dealt with by classical computing software by undertaking a technical evaluation.* Make an overall business assessment of the feasibility of developing classical-quantum applications for the targeted use cases and specifically when this may be possible based on the rate of advance of quantum hardware/methods.We will explore a range of quantum methods on different quantum hardware seeking to find the optimum performance possible on today's technology. We will also be considering how best to combine quantum and classical methods to maximise the overall performance of the potential applications.This is a highly innovative project combining experts in quantum computing (Applied Quantum Computing and National Quantum Computing Centre), healthcare specialists (The PSC) and an important end user participant (Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust).