Quantum support vector machines for robust anomaly detection in noisy ICU physiological data

Early and accurate anomaly detection in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) monitoring is vital for improving patient outcomes and reducing mortality. Traditional machine learning techniques often face challenges in handling the noisy, high-dimensional, and limited datasets characteristic of ICU physiological signals. In this study, we present an early investigation of a quantum-enhanced framework employing a classically simulated Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM) to improve the detection of critical anomalies in real-world ICU time-series data. Utilizing the publicly available PhysioNet 2012 Challenge dataset, we extract comprehensive statistical and temporal features from vital signs including heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation. Our QSVM model leverages a quantum kernel mapped via Qiskit’s ZZFeatureMap and is rigorously benchmarked against classical machine learning classifiers such as Support Vector Machines with radial basis function kernels, Random Forest, and XGBoost. Experimental results demonstrate that the QSVM shows competitive and robust classification performance, particularly excelling in scenarios with limited and noisy data, with an AUC of 0.92, particularly excelling in scenarios with limited and noisy data. Furthermore, the quantum kernel’s ability to implicitly project data into a high-dimensional Hilbert space provides enhanced separability of complex physiological patterns. This work constitutes one of the first simulation-based applications of quantum machine learning to critical care anomaly detection, underscoring the promise of hybrid quantum-classical approaches for advancing real-time clinical decision support systems.