Hybrid Quantum–AI Models for Healthcare Prediction: Enhancing Accuracy on Complex Data and Addressing Barriers to Clinical Adoption

The rapid growth of healthcare data demands predictive models capable of handling complexity, noise, and imbalance inherent in clinical datasets. This study explores the integration of quantum computing with artificial intelligence to develop Hybrid Quantum–AI models for healthcare prediction. The proposed framework combines classical preprocessing and feature extraction with quantum neural networks (QNNs) and quantum kernel methods to enhance predictive performance on diverse healthcare tasks, including disease diagnosis and postoperative complication prediction. Empirical evaluation across benchmark and clinical datasets demonstrates that hybrid quantum models achieve superior sensitivity, precision, and calibration compared to traditional machine learning approaches, particularly under conditions of data imperfection and small sample size. Beyond performance, this work investigates practical barriers to clinical adoption, including hardware limitations, scalability, interpretability, and ethical compliance. The results highlight that while current quantum hardware remains a constraint, hybrid approaches already offer tangible benefits in predictive accuracy and robustness. The study concludes by outlining a roadmap for real-world implementation, emphasizing the need for interpretable hybrid architectures, federated data strategies, and regulatory alignment to enable the transition of quantum–AI healthcare solutions from research to clinical practice.