It's one thing to talk about what AI will do in healthcare – the use cases and applications that will change the face of that field.

It's another matter entirely to describe how this transformation will occur – how the body’s systems interact with technology in ways that can, quite frankly, be astonishing.

Our bodies are incredibly complex – highly advanced machines composed of dozens of functional systems working together as a unified whole. That doesn’t even account for the intricate structure of the human brain, which Marvin Minsky famously described as hundreds of machines collaborating, as outlined in his book Society of the Mind, along with his extensive work at MIT.

Complex Systems in Human Biology

Consider the heart – the body’s largest muscle, responsible for sustaining life by pumping blood through the body in a precise manner.

With its multiple chambers, elaborate network of veins and arteries, and electrical signaling system, the heart is, in many ways, mysterious and challenging for clinicians to fully understand and treat.

For decades, the EKG has been the gold standard for cardiac evaluation.

But what if AI and other emerging technologies could uncover new methods of gathering cardiac data and diagnosing conditions, ultimately transforming patient care?

Earlier this year at Imagination in Action, my colleague Daniela Rus, director of the MIT CSAIL lab, spoke with Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ. Their conversation focused on how quantum technology and artificial intelligence could revolutionize heart care.

Before diving into those innovations, however, Hidary touched on broader medical applications, noting, for instance, that 85% of clinical trials fail, and that AI-driven strategies can significantly reduce time and costs when studying protein-receptor interactions or other outcomes.

A Quick Glossary

Before discussing the specifics of new AI-based heart treatments, Hidary referenced CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), a parallel computing platform developed by NVIDIA that enables developers to utilize certain hardware for general-purpose and scientific computing. He also explained the role of tensors, helping illustrate how teams can “run quantum simulations on GPUs.” Additionally, he mentioned quantum sensors – tools that leverage quantum science to capture highly precise data. These concepts are central to the theoretical advancements in cardiology.

Replacing the EKG

The EKG measures the heart’s electric field. But Hidary proposed a new approach using quantum and AI techniques that instead analyze the magnetic field of the heart. This method would penetrate the body more directly and comprehensively, offering richer, higher-resolution data.

Imagine it as a kind of lossless signal transmission that delivers superior information for cardiac assessments.

“This is something that combines AI and quantum,” he said. “You can't do one without the other.”

Here’s how he explained the process:

“Your skin conductance is very indirectly connected to your heart,” Hidary noted. “Those wires (in traditional EKGs) aren’t on your heart itself. They're on your skin, but the magnetic field travels through the body cavity undisturbed, intact from all angles, giving us a pristine, high-density informational view of the heart—something the EKG, which is often indirect and prone to false positives and negatives, simply can’t provide.”

Listening to Hidary, it becomes clear that we may be approaching a new era in heart treatment — one powered by the convergence of quantum science and AI to reveal what’s truly happening inside the human body.

More on Heart Care

This resource from Campanile Cardiology discusses shifting heart care from reactive to proactive models, leveraging pattern recognition and predictive analytics for early detection.

The article also explores efforts to determine the heart’s “real age” or biological age based on factors like plaque accumulation.

Alternatively, you can refer to these predictions from JACC, despite their technical language:

· AI-enabled technologies are increasingly integrated into cardiovascular practice and research.

· In the coming decade, we envision an AI-driven future where cardiovascular diagnostics and therapies will effectively utilize multimodal data at the point of care.

· Advancements in biomedical research and discovery are set to make cardiovascular care more personalized, accurate, and effective.

· Achieving this future requires fair, regulated adoption that emphasizes equity, safety, and collaboration between innovators, communities, and society.

In any case, we appear to be on the brink of unlocking new dimensions in healthcare through the technologies now at our fingertips — many of which didn’t even exist functionally five or ten years ago. What we’re witnessing is a vast, uncharted territory opening up before us, one that will keep us engaged and exploring for years to come.

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