Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Routledge eBooks

Quantum Physics and Systems Theory

Carol M. Davis

Published May 28, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Complementary and alternative therapies, also referred to as holistic therapies or energy medicine , are becoming more commonly researched in refereed journals since the establishment of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (formerly known as the Office of Alternative Medicine and, later, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) and its awarding of grants. Few would disagree with the fact that more and more patients and clients are turning to holistic therapies as an adjunct to allopathic therapies. A 1998 Journal of the American Medical Association study by Astin 1 reported increased use of alternative therapies because patients felt that this approach to healing was more consistent with their ideas about health and the body. But credible published research on the effectiveness of holistic therapies lags behind public acceptance, largely because these therapies and their mechanisms of action do not lend themselves for study by way of the gold standard of medical research—the randomized controlled trial. As a result, one may hear the opinion that complementary and alternative therapies should not be used because they are not science based, that is, they have not been proven to be effective according to the rules of medical science.

DOI
10.4324/9781003524625-5

Related papers

Quantum Theory Methods as a Possible Alternative for the Double-Blind Gold Standard of Evidence-Based Medicine: Outlining a New Research Program

Diederik Aerts, Lester Beltran, Suzette Geriente +4 more

We motivate the possibility of using notions and methods derived from quantum physics, and more specifically from the research field known as ‘quantum cognition’, to optimally model different situations in the field of medicine, its decision-making processes and ensuing practices, particularly in relation to chronic and rare diseases. This also as a way to devise alternative approaches to the generally adopted double-blind gold standard.

arXiv:1810.13342•Foundations of Science•Dec 4, 2018•3 citations

Pseudoscience versus science

Larry Dossey

Sadri Hassani, in his Commentary, laments the fact that many of America’s top-tier medical schools “house centers of integrative health.” He singles out Explore, a peer-reviewed journal I serve as executive editor, for special criticism because we published “Manifesto for a post-materialist science,” which, he says, “elevates parapsychology and near-death experience to the rank of quantum theory.”That article had nothing to do with equating those areas to the scientific status of quantum theory. However, Hassani appears unfamiliar with developments in which quantum physical concepts such as nonlocality and entanglement have been shown to occur in biological systems. That, we believe, indicates some as-yet-undefined degree of overlap between biomedical science and quantum physics. As physicist Vlatko Vedral states in his 2011 article “Living in a quantum world”:Quantum mechanics is not just about teeny particles. It applies to things of all sizes: birds, plants, maybe even people….… Until the past decade, experimentalists had not confirmed that quantum behavior persists on a macroscopic scale. Today, however, they routinely do.11. V. Vedral, Sci. Am., June 2011, p. 38, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/living-in-a-quantum-world/.Until the origin, manifestations, and nature of consciousness—science’s greatest mystery—are resolved, we shall continue to examine those topics at Explore with the same openness advocated by some of the greatest patriarchs of modern physics, including Max Planck, the founder of quantum mechanics, who said,I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.22. J. W. N. Sullivan, Observer, 25 January 1931, p. 17.And Nobel physicist Erwin Schrödinger said,Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.33. W. Moore, A Life of Erwin Schrödinger, Canto edition, Cambridge U. Press (1994), p. 181.REFERENCESSection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCES <<1. V. Vedral, Sci. Am., June 2011, p. 38, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/living-in-a-quantum-world/. Google ScholarCrossref, ISI2. J. W. N. Sullivan, Observer, 25 January 1931, p. 17. Google Scholar3. W. Moore, A Life of Erwin Schrödinger, Canto edition, Cambridge U. Press (1994), p. 181. Google Scholar© 2016 American Institute of Physics.

Physics Today•Nov 1, 2016•0 citations

Perspective of Quantum Medicine

V. K. Magas

Springer eBooks•Jan 1, 2006•0 citations

Generalized Entanglement: A New Theoretical Model for Understanding the Effects of Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Harold Walach

BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM: A main problem for the acceptance of many methods belonging to the broad spectrum of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is that there is no conceivable theoretical bridge between the mainstream biomedical model and CAM theories and practice. Although empirical evidence is one important side of the coin of credibility, theoretical feasibility is the other. History of science teaches that no amount of empirical evidence will convince sceptics and followers of more conventional paradigms as long as there is no good theoretical model to make empirical findings plausible. METHODS AND SOLUTION: I therefore propose to broaden the spectrum of theoretical concepts beyond the reigning local-causalist model toward a non-local model that encompasses effects as encountered in CAM. Such a model can be derived from a generalized and weaker version of quantum theory recently developed and published by my colleagues and I as weak quantum theory (WQT). This theoretical model predicts nonlocal correlations analogous to Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)-like correlations in quantum mechanics proper. The discerning moment, though, is that these nonlocal correlations within WQT are not EPR correlations postulated to extend into the classical world, but a broader, generalized version of entanglement not dependent on the strict quantum nature of the system under question. WQT predicts entanglement between elements of a system if two variables or observables are complementary: one describing a global and one the local aspects of the system. Entanglement then ensues between those local elements of a system that are complementary to the global description or observable of that system. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This paper explores this rather abstract and general notion and expands it into more concrete examples. It is at the moment a purely explanatory structure, which, however, lends itself to exact empirical testing due to rather precise predictions, which will be developed. Because this structure of generalized entanglement is ubiquitous and also operative in conventional medicine, and because it is derived from one of the strongest theories that science has developed so far, it would constitute a theoretical bridge between the different medical and scientific traditions.

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine•Jun 1, 2005•70 citations

Quantum Medicine and Narrative Quantum Medical Technology

제주대학교 의과대학 의학과, Min Joo Choi

Journal of Naturopathy•Mar 31, 2026•0 citations

The state of quantum computing applications in health and medicine

Frederik F. Flöther

Abstract Quantum computing hardware and software have made enormous strides over the last years1. Questions around quantum computing’s impact on research and society have changed from “if” to “when/how”. The 2020s have been described as the “quantum decade”, and the first production solutions that drive scientific and business value are expected to become available over the next years. Medicine, including fields in healthcare and life sciences, has seen a flurry of quantum-related activities and experiments in the last few years (although medicine and quantum theory have arguably been entangled ever since Schrödinger’s cat2). The initial focus was on biochemical and computational biology problems3,4,5,6,7,8; recently, however, clinical and medical quantum solutions have drawn increasing interest. The rapid emergence of quantum computing in health and medicine necessitates a mapping of the landscape. In this review, clinical and medical proof-of-concept quantum computing applications are outlined and put into perspective. These consist of over 40 experimental and theoretical studies from the last few years. The use case areas span genomics, clinical research and discovery, diagnostics, and treatments and interventions. Quantum machine learning (QML) in particular has rapidly evolved and shown to be competitive with classical benchmarks in recent medical research. Near-term QML algorithms, for instance, quantum support vector classifiers and quantum neural networks, have been trained with diverse clinical and real-world data sets. This includes studies in generating new molecular entities as drug candidates, diagnosing based on medical image classification, predicting patient persistence, forecasting treatment effectiveness, and tailoring radiotherapy. The use cases and the applied algorithms are summarized. In addition, this review provides an outlook on medicine in the quantum era. There has been much discussion about healthcare’s journey towards precision medicine and the quadruple aim (better health, lower costs, enhanced patient experiences, and improved healthcare practitioner work lives)9. While a range of technical and ethical challenges remain, quantum computing is poised to become a key enabler for advancing towards the holy grail: keeping people healthy through proactive medical care and guidance at the level of an individual.

arXiv:2301.09106•Research Directions Quantum Technologies•Jul 24, 2023•117 citations
Complementary and alternative therapies, also referred to as holistic therapies or energy medicine , are becoming more commonly researched in refereed journals since the establishment of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (formerly known as the Office of Alternative Medicine and, later, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) and its awarding of grants. Few would disagree with the fact that more and more patients and clients are turning to holistic therapies as an adjunct to allopathic therapies. A 1998 Journal of the American Medical Association study by Astin 1 reported increased use of alternative therapies because patients felt that this approach to healing was more consistent with their ideas about health and the body. But credible published research on the effectiveness of holistic therapies lags behind public acceptance, largely because these therapies and their mechanisms of action do not lend themselves for study by way of the gold standard of medical research—the randomized controlled trial. As a result, one may hear the opinion that complementary and alternative therapies should not be used because they are not science based, that is, they have not been proven to be effective according to the rules of medical science.
Sadri Hassani, in his Commentary, laments the fact that many of America’s top-tier medical schools “house centers of integrative health.” He singles out Explore, a peer-reviewed journal I serve as executive editor, for special criticism because we published “Manifesto for a post-materialist science,” which, he says, “elevates parapsychology and near-death experience to the rank of quantum theory.”That article had nothing to do with equating those areas to the scientific status of quantum theory. However, Hassani appears unfamiliar with developments in which quantum physical concepts such as nonlocality and entanglement have been shown to occur in biological systems. That, we believe, indicates some as-yet-undefined degree of overlap between biomedical science and quantum physics. As physicist Vlatko Vedral states in his 2011 article “Living in a quantum world”:Quantum mechanics is not just about teeny particles. It applies to things of all sizes: birds, plants, maybe even people….… Until the past decade, experimentalists had not confirmed that quantum behavior persists on a macroscopic scale. Today, however, they routinely do.11. V. Vedral, Sci. Am., June 2011, p. 38, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/living-in-a-quantum-world/.Until the origin, manifestations, and nature of consciousness—science’s greatest mystery—are resolved, we shall continue to examine those topics at Explore with the same openness advocated by some of the greatest patriarchs of modern physics, including Max Planck, the founder of quantum mechanics, who said,I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.22. J. W. N. Sullivan, Observer, 25 January 1931, p. 17.And Nobel physicist Erwin Schrödinger said,Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.33. W. Moore, A Life of Erwin Schrödinger, Canto edition, Cambridge U. Press (1994), p. 181.REFERENCESSection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCES <<1. V. Vedral, Sci. Am., June 2011, p. 38, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/living-in-a-quantum-world/. Google ScholarCrossref, ISI2. J. W. N. Sullivan, Observer, 25 January 1931, p. 17. Google Scholar3. W. Moore, A Life of Erwin Schrödinger, Canto edition, Cambridge U. Press (1994), p. 181. Google Scholar© 2016 American Institute of Physics.
BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM: A main problem for the acceptance of many methods belonging to the broad spectrum of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is that there is no conceivable theoretical bridge between the mainstream biomedical model and CAM theories and practice. Although empirical evidence is one important side of the coin of credibility, theoretical feasibility is the other. History of science teaches that no amount of empirical evidence will convince sceptics and followers of more conventional paradigms as long as there is no good theoretical model to make empirical findings plausible. METHODS AND SOLUTION: I therefore propose to broaden the spectrum of theoretical concepts beyond the reigning local-causalist model toward a non-local model that encompasses effects as encountered in CAM. Such a model can be derived from a generalized and weaker version of quantum theory recently developed and published by my colleagues and I as weak quantum theory (WQT). This theoretical model predicts nonlocal correlations analogous to Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)-like correlations in quantum mechanics proper. The discerning moment, though, is that these nonlocal correlations within WQT are not EPR correlations postulated to extend into the classical world, but a broader, generalized version of entanglement not dependent on the strict quantum nature of the system under question. WQT predicts entanglement between elements of a system if two variables or observables are complementary: one describing a global and one the local aspects of the system. Entanglement then ensues between those local elements of a system that are complementary to the global description or observable of that system. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This paper explores this rather abstract and general notion and expands it into more concrete examples. It is at the moment a purely explanatory structure, which, however, lends itself to exact empirical testing due to rather precise predictions, which will be developed. Because this structure of generalized entanglement is ubiquitous and also operative in conventional medicine, and because it is derived from one of the strongest theories that science has developed so far, it would constitute a theoretical bridge between the different medical and scientific traditions.
Abstract Quantum computing hardware and software have made enormous strides over the last years1. Questions around quantum computing’s impact on research and society have changed from “if” to “when/how”. The 2020s have been described as the “quantum decade”, and the first production solutions that drive scientific and business value are expected to become available over the next years. Medicine, including fields in healthcare and life sciences, has seen a flurry of quantum-related activities and experiments in the last few years (although medicine and quantum theory have arguably been entangled ever since Schrödinger’s cat2). The initial focus was on biochemical and computational biology problems3,4,5,6,7,8; recently, however, clinical and medical quantum solutions have drawn increasing interest. The rapid emergence of quantum computing in health and medicine necessitates a mapping of the landscape. In this review, clinical and medical proof-of-concept quantum computing applications are outlined and put into perspective. These consist of over 40 experimental and theoretical studies from the last few years. The use case areas span genomics, clinical research and discovery, diagnostics, and treatments and interventions. Quantum machine learning (QML) in particular has rapidly evolved and shown to be competitive with classical benchmarks in recent medical research. Near-term QML algorithms, for instance, quantum support vector classifiers and quantum neural networks, have been trained with diverse clinical and real-world data sets. This includes studies in generating new molecular entities as drug candidates, diagnosing based on medical image classification, predicting patient persistence, forecasting treatment effectiveness, and tailoring radiotherapy. The use cases and the applied algorithms are summarized. In addition, this review provides an outlook on medicine in the quantum era. There has been much discussion about healthcare’s journey towards precision medicine and the quadruple aim (better health, lower costs, enhanced patient experiences, and improved healthcare practitioner work lives)9. While a range of technical and ethical challenges remain, quantum computing is poised to become a key enabler for advancing towards the holy grail: keeping people healthy through proactive medical care and guidance at the level of an individual.