Ethical considerations in deploying post-quantum cryptography in healthcare
Shantanu Kulkarnidr.shantanuk@gmail.comDepartment of Emergency MedicineKrishna Institute of Medical SciencesKrishna Vishwa Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University)Karad, Maharashtra, 415539, IndiaView full profile → , Dipti Ganesh Korwardeepti.korwar1@vit.eduDepartment of Engineering Science and HumanitiesVishwakarma Institute of TechnologyPune, Maharashtra, 411037, IndiaView full profile → , *Preeti Pandurang KaleCorresponding authorpreetikale2025@gmail.comDepartment of Electronics & Computer EngineeringCSMSS Chh. Shahu College of EngineeringChhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra, 431011, IndiaView full profile → , Manzoor Mohammadmanzoor@vardhaman.orgDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning)Vardhaman College of EngineeringShamshabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, 501218, IndiaView full profile → , Indu Purushothamanindu@maher.ac.inDepartment of ResearchMeenakshi Academy of Higher Education & ResearchChennai, Tamil Nadu, 600087, IndiaView full profile → , Amit Gauravcoe@niu.edu.inSchool of Engineering & TechnologyNoida International UniversityGreater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201312, IndiaView full profile →
* Corresponding author · click or hover a name for details
- Received:
- 01 Mar 2026
- Published Online:
- 31 Oct 2026
- Article type:
- Research Article
- Language:
- EN
- Article no.:
- JIOS-2497
- Pages:
- 3719–3729
Abstract
While it is essential for healthcare to migrate to post quantum to safeguard sensitive medical data that has a long lifespan, the deployment presents challenges in terms of computational power, interoperability, accessibility, and responsible data protection. This study puts forth a framework for the evaluation of secure and responsible migration from a health care perspective which is called Ethical Post-Quantum Cryptography Healthcare Framework (E-PQC-HCF). The methodology combines the ML-KEM-768, ML-DSA-65, AES-256-GCM and AHP-TOPSIS methods for evaluating the security, performance, privacy, interoperability, and ethics. During a controlled prototype evaluation, E-PQC-HCF had a satisfaction rate for policy compliance of 96.2% and a success rate for interoperability of 93.8% with an ECC-based baseline authentication latency that has been increased by 12.6%. The hybrid configuration proposed in this paper is 9.3% more suitable than the deployment of standalone PQC as suggested by AHP-TOPSIS. The novelty here is using measurable ethical criteria, in conjunction with PQC selection. The findings show that, with a good PQC migration strategy, the protection of healthcare data over the long term can be improved and not affect the operational overhead and compatibility.
Keywords
Subject Classifications
References
References
[1] S. P. Wu, S. D. Wu, K. C. Lu, and C. C. Wu, “Post-quantum cryptography for healthcare: Securing medical data, connected devices, and digital health infrastructure,” Front. Health Serv., vol. 6, Art. no. 1901282 (2026), doi: 10.3389/frhs.2026.1901282.
[2] O. Freyer, M. Ostermann, T. Minssen, and S. Gilbert, “Quantum cryptography and data protection for medical devices before and after they meet Q-Day,” npj Digit. Med., vol. 8, Art. no. 620 (2025), doi: 10.1038/s41746-025-02082-3.
[3] V. K. Bukkarayasamudram, P. C. S. Reddy, K. Arun Kumar, R. M. Jagadish, S. Sharma, M. L. Prasad, Y. Sucharitha, I. A. Tayubi, and G. K. Thakur, “Quantum computing revolution in healthcare: A systematic review of applications, issues and future directions,” Artif. Intell. Rev., vol. 58, no. 12, Art. no. 389 (2025), doi: 10.1007/s10462-025-11381-w.
[4] M. SaberiKamarposhti, K.-W. Ng, F.-F. Chua, J. Abdullah, M. Yadollahi, M. Moradi, and S. Ahmadpour, “Post-quantum healthcare: A roadmap for cybersecurity resilience in medical data,” Heliyon, vol. 10, no. 10, Art. no. e31406 (2024), doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31406.
[5] E. W. Abood, A. A. Yassin, Z. A. Abduljabbar, V. O. Nyangaresi, and A. H. Ali, “Provably lightweight and secure IoHT scheme with post-quantum cryptography and fog computing,” MethodsX, vol. 15, Art. no. 103631 (2025), doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2025.103631.
[6] I. Touil, W. Chikouche, and D. Benterki, “Interior-point method for CQP problems employing a novel trigonometric kernel function,” J. Inf. Optim. Sci., vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 437–453 (2025), doi: 10.47974/JIOS-1464.
[7] G. Ahmed, A. Rahman, V. Deshmukh, H. M. Panchabudhe, T. U. Pathan, and P. Khobragade, “Data-driven clinical decision support systems for optimizing treatment pathways in cardiovascular diseases,” in Proc. 2025 IEEE 1st SISIMPACT, Bhopal, India, p. 29 (2025), doi: 10.1109/SISIMPACT67725.2025.11439625.
[8] F. G. Abdullah and T. S. Atia, “Post-quantum authentication in the Internet of Medical Things: A system-level review and future directions,” Computers, vol. 15, no. 3, Art. no. 189 (2026), doi: 10.3390/computers15030189.
[9] N. Veskoukis, N. Stefanopoulos, P. Naoum, and K. Athanasakis, “Ethical considerations in health technology assessment for precision medicine: A Delphi study in a Greek setting,” J. Pers. Med., vol. 16, no. 6, Art. no. 308 (2026), doi: 10.3390/jpm16060308.
[10] M. Ezz, A. S. Alaerjan, and A. M. Mostafa, “Ethical AI in healthcare: Integrating zero-knowledge proofs and smart contracts for transparent data governance,” Bioengineering, vol. 12, no. 11, Art. no. 1236 (2025), doi: 10.3390/bioengineering12111236.
[11] R. Ranasinghe and V. Bandara, “Collatz conjecture–driven cryptographic framework,” J. Discrete Math. Sci. Cryptogr., vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 2621–2640 (2026), doi: 10.47974/JDMSC-2232.
[12] S.-Y. Chang and Q. Khan, “Post-quantum cryptography in networking protocols: Challenges, solutions, and future directions,” Cryptography, vol. 10, no. 1, Art. no. 12 (2026), doi: 10.3390/cryptography10010012.
[13] S. Nambiar, M. Tatiya, K. S. Diwate, D. Sharma, S. N. Ajani, and Y. Nagargoje, “Privacy-preserving machine learning techniques ensuring data confidentiality and model accuracy in federated learning environments,” J. Inf. Optim. Sci., vol. 47, no. 5-B, pp. 1887–1895 (2026), doi: 10.47974/JIOS-2281.
[14] C.-L. Chen, K.-W. Zeng, W.-Y. Li, C.-F. Lee, L.-C. Liu, and Y.-Y. Deng, “Lightweight post-quantum cryptography: Applications and countermeasures in Internet of Things, blockchain, and e-learning,” Eng. Proc., vol. 103, no. 1, Art. no. 14 (2025), doi: 10.3390/engproc2025103014.
[15] A.-G. Nacu, D.-A. Constantin, and L. M. Rogozea, “Ethical dilemmas and legal responsibilities in patient care: An analysis of hospital safety,” Healthcare, vol. 13, no. 21, Art. no. 2800 (2025), doi: 10.3390/healthcare13212800.
