National Cancer Center Leads Clinical Research on 'Quantum Cryptography Communication'

National Cancer Center Exterior (Photo by National Cancer Center)

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The National Cancer Center announced on the 18th that it was recently selected for the 2022 "Quantum Cryptography Communication Pilot Infrastructure Construction and Operation Project" organized by the National Information Society Agency (NIA) of Korea.

Quantum cryptography communication is an emerging next-generation network security technology. It blocks eavesdropping, wiretapping, and hacking through quantum cryptography technology that is difficult to decode.

This pilot project was promoted to revitalize the related industry in the current market, where products have been developed using quantum cryptography communication technology but initial cases are lacking. Led by KT, a consortium was formed with Ajou University Hospital, Emphasis Information Technology, Dream Security, Cowiver, and others to jointly carry out a project worth 700 million KRW.

As a public medical institution, the National Cancer Center was finally selected as a public sector demand institution for the quantum cryptography communication pilot infrastructure construction and operation project. Through this, it plans to conduct federated learning-based clinical research in a quantum cryptography communication environment for the first time in Korea. It is expected to enable safe multi-institution clinical research on a single communication network without the hassle of directly sharing medical data. To this end, a "Hybrid Q-FL (Quantum-Federated Learning) based multi-institution clinical research system" will be established in collaboration with Ajou University Hospital.

The main contents of the project include ▲ operation of a Q-FL based multi-institution clinical research system ▲ discovery of Q-FL based multi-institution clinical research models ▲ verification of performance and security of the Q-FL based multi-institution clinical research system. Through the established system, clinical researchers wishing to conduct multi-institution clinical research will be able to utilize the weight values of learning results from each institution without directly sharing data with other institutions. With quantum cryptography technology providing strong security, AI-based multi-institution clinical research will become possible without direct data sharing, solving personal information security issues and enabling various clinical research applications.

Dr. Jaedong Lee of the AI Business Team, the project leader at the National Cancer Center, said, "We expect to establish a foundation that allows safe and efficient research when conducting multi-institution clinical research using AI and big data in a quantum cryptography communication environment," adding, "Based on the established system, we will integrate and expand it into various studies and carry out this project well so that the National Cancer Center can lead AI-based multi-institution clinical research."