Is quantum the next breakthrough for human wellbeing?

JRC explains | 4 July 2025 | Joint Research Centre

There is a lot of excitement around breakthroughs in “quantum” technology. This quickly evolving field could revolutionise our ability to measure, scan and communicate. But how can quantum physics improve our everyday lives?

The example of healthcare

Healthcare is one area that could benefit from new quantum technology. Quantum shows promise for improving medical imaging. New quantum sensors and scanning techniques could take clearer images of the human body than the current scanners in use for the past decades. MRI machines for example are themselves an early type of quantum technology that “see” based on nuclear magnetic resonance.

However, new quantum sensing technology like ‘optically-pumped magnetometers’ and ‘nitrogen-vacancy-in-diamond magnetometers’, can significantly increase the resolution of images by harnessing other quantum effects.

These technologies could also be used to observe the health of our brains. This type of scan, known as magnetoencephalography, maps the magnetic fields generated by the faintest electrical signals when brain cells fire.

Meanwhile, quantum technology could also hold the key to highly secure encrypted communications, allowing personal medical data to be shared safely between medical professionals and patients instantly.

However, with opportunity comes risk. Quantum computers could also be used to decrypt sensitive information like medical records in just moments, overcoming decades’ worth of research and countless millions of euros in building secure IT systems.

For these reasons, the JRC is conducting research into the possible uses of quantum technology, as well as understanding the potential risks and challenges it could pose to society.

Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst

Conscious of these risks, the European Commission is focussing on security. At the JRC, scientists are supporting the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) initiative, with the testing and evaluation of quantum cryptographic equipment to make sure it has been manufactured and performs correctly while guaranteeing security against attacks.

The project is aimed at developing a highly secure communications network protected by quantum technologies, for applications ranging from governmental to critical infrastructure and banking communication using quantum key distribution. This work and other quantum research which the JRC contributes to are both an insurance policy and an investment. Like traditional cybersecurity, we need to stay at the cutting edge of technology to protect ourselves.

At the same time, we know that the cybersecurity practices in use today simply can’t protect us from the kinds of quantum computers we can expect to see in 10 years’ time, so we have to be prepared for emerging threats.

From theory to real world application

While quantum mechanics sounds like the stuff of science fiction, we are seeing breakthroughs every day that bring us closer to game changing new technologies. Teleportation and travelling faster than the speed of light are not on the cards, a new frontier for healthcare might be around the corner.

However, at the moment we do not have quantum computers large enough to do many of the things that scientists are imagining. The quantum computers we have today have only 100 or so quantum bits, or ‘qubits’, of processing power.

Major developments are expected over the next five to ten years, with both academia and private companies investing in developing several different quantum computer systems. The Quantum Europe strategy will help ensure research and investment can help keep Europe at the cutting edge of these new developments.

Presently, there are more than 440 companies operating in quantum worldwide and the EU is home to a 32% of the total. The EU-based companies tend to be smaller and younger than those in other jurisdictions, with stable growth in patenting.

Read how EU fares in the global race on quantum

Quantum computer machine close up.
© phonlamaiphoto - stock.adobe.com

440 companies operating in quantum worldwide

32% of total are in the EU

60% of EU-based companies were set up after 2018

What do we mean by quantum?

Quantum technology is based on quantum mechanics - the science of very small things like atoms, electrons and photons (particles of light). The world that we experience at the “human scale”, is the result of vast numbers of those particles acting together. The quantum world, when you look at things down at the level of individual atoms, looks completely different from our world.

At this level, scientists are dealing with things that have strange and useful properties, for example even the act of measuring them can affect what they are and how they behave. At the quantum level, systems can behave both like a particle and a wave. They can also interact in a way that make it difficult to tell if two objects are separate or part of the same thing.

At this scale, the act of measuring a system fundamentally disrupts it. That’s because every quantum system has an inherent randomness, where objects exist more as a probability than a definite thing. Questions like whether light and electrons are a particle or a wave, and whether two objects are separate or part of the same thing become very important, and very difficult to answer.

It has taken over 100 years to unravel it all, but today we are at the point where people are trying to apply some of the more mysterious concepts from quantum physics. Recent technological advances mean we are now able to start to make use of some of the more strange and unexpected quantum mechanical effects that exist in physics.

From quantum computing to quantum health

Quantum computing for example, uses the concept of superposition where you can change the properties of a particle – the state - and these changed states can add up to form another state, like a tiny calculator adding up two numbers to make a third, different number.

This links to quantum entanglement where two objects are not really separate but are actually part of the same thing. When you measure one, you change the other one, no matter how far apart they are, in a very specific way. The science behind this has long been just theoretical, and when quantum theory was being developed there was no scientific consensus that these phenomena even existed.

Today however, scientists are working on how to exploit these properties to enable new types of algorithms to be run which would be impossible on a classical computer. Such algorithms could make calculations which would require more resources than we expect to ever have on Earth with existing computers.

This jump in computing power could revolutionise personalised healthcare. In genomics for example, quantum computers could analyse DNA extremely quickly and help develop treatments or cures for diseases tailored to individual patients.