The Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, the University of Seoul, and medical device company Flownics will use quantum computers to analyze blood flow in cardiovascular disease and develop patient-specific diagnostic technology.
The joint research team said on the 25th that it was selected for a new project under the "2026 quantum computing–based quantum advantage challenge research program" led by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). The research period is two years and six months from 2026 to 2028, and the budget is 2.5 billion won.
The team is focusing on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). With only CT or MRI images, one can confirm the structure of blood vessels, but it is difficult to determine how fast blood flows or where pressure is concentrated. Using CFD, it is possible to calculate blood flow velocity and pressure, and the forces exerted on vessel walls, based on a patient's imaging data.
The problem is the amount of computation. The more precisely the patient's heart and blood vessels are reproduced, the more data must be processed, and the longer calculations take on conventional computers.
The team plans to verify whether complex blood flow calculations can be processed faster and more efficiently using quantum computers.
The study will first target patients with atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is an arrhythmia in which the heart beats irregularly, creating a risk of blood clots as blood stagnates inside the heart.
The team will create a 3D model of the heart and blood vessels using CT images, calculate blood flow with a quantum computer, and verify accuracy by comparing it with 4D Flow MRI that captures actual patient blood flow.
The "quantum advantage" in this study refers to confirming whether quantum computers are faster or more accurate than conventional computers in real medical calculations. The team will compare with classical CFD by applying techniques that reduce quantum computer errors and aims to secure at least 95% precision for quantum-based CFD.
Seoul St. Mary's Hospital will secure patient imaging and clinical data and validate results on actual patients. The University of Seoul will develop quantum algorithms and evaluate performance. Flownics will use its proprietary 4D Flow MRI–based blood flow analysis platform to verify the accuracy of quantum CFD.
Yoon Jong-chan, professor of cardiology at the Heart and Brain Vascular Hospital of Seoul St. Mary's Hospital and principal investigator, said, "Patient-specific diagnosis and treatment based on hemodynamics are key to overcoming cardiovascular disease," adding, "We will apply quantum algorithms and error mitigation to CFD to identify the conditions under which quantum advantage appears in real-world clinical settings."
The team plans to expand the research beyond atrial fibrillation to other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and extend the technology to areas such as "medical twins" that virtually implement medical device design and patient conditions.
Meanwhile, the team was the only one in Korea selected last year for a quantum computing challenge led by an agency under the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and this year it was also the only one in Korea finally selected for the Quantum Innovation Catalyzer program co-led by Cleveland Clinic and K5 Global.