Make or Break

Quantum computing may become one of the most consequential technologies in modern health care. It could transform drug discovery, molecular simulation, genomics, precision medicine, medical imaging, clinical research, hospital operations, and artificial intelligence. At the same time, sufficiently powerful quantum computers could undermine the public-key cryptography that protects patient records, genomic data, medical devices, research archives, and health-care infrastructure.

Make or Break: How Quantum Computing Will Transform - and Threaten - Health Care examines both sides of that transition.

The book explains quantum computing without requiring a physics or computer-science background, then connects the technology to the realities of hospitals, health systems, pharmaceutical companies, medical-device manufacturers, researchers, clinicians, security teams, and technology leaders.

Readers will explore:

• How quantum computing works and why the qubit matters

• Drug discovery and molecular simulation

• Protein structure, genomics, and precision medicine

• Quantum sensing, diagnostics, and medical imaging

• Hospital operations, logistics, optimization, and clinical AI

• Shor's algorithm and the threat to public-key cryptography

• "Harvest now, decrypt later" and the long-term exposure of health-care data

• Medical devices and the Internet of Bodies

• Third-party vendors, clouds, clearinghouses, and the extended health-care perimeter

• NIST post-quantum cryptography standards

• Cryptographic inventories and cryptographic bills of materials

• Crypto-agility and the migration to post-quantum cryptography

• Governance, regulation, economics, ethics, and health-care equity

• Practical plans for executives, security leaders, researchers, procurement teams, and technology organizations

This is not a prediction that quantum computing will arrive on a particular date. Instead, it provides a framework for understanding what is established, what is demonstrated, what remains uncertain, and what organizations can do while the technology continues to develop.

With 28 diagrams and practical appendices, Make or Break is designed as both an introduction to the quantum-health-care intersection and a working field guide for leaders making technology, security, research, and risk decisions.