The Autumn International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, jointly organized by the British Medical Journal and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, was held in Taipei. National Development Council (NDC) Minister Chen Mei-ling during her address on Sept. 19 said that Taiwan is well-prepared to take advantage of the future industry trend of integrating artificial technology (AI) with medical care to take on the “smart biotech” industry, due to a solid foundation in the form of a world-unique National Health Insurance data bank as well as excellent medical care and information communication technology capabilities.

Minister Chen said that each year, Taiwan devotes nearly NT$20 billion to promote integrated medical care and AI projects with the aim of harnessing exponential gains and accelerating development of digital medicine, precision medicine, regenerative medicine and other key areas to propel growth in the biotech industry in the next decade.

As part of deregulatory efforts, the NDC has eased 20 biotech-related regulations out of 496 issues it is tracking, such as exempting human trials for some cellular therapies for late stage cancer patients, as well as expanding the patient groups deemed suitable to receive remote medical care.

Minister Chen said that AIoT, the integration of AI and the Internet of Things, and biomedicine together have tremendous growth potential and noted that the sentiment is shared by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co founder Morris Chang, who has said that AIoT is poised to bring about the third wave of transformation for the information technology sector and deeply affect peoples’ daily lives in the next 20 years.

Minister Chen emphasized that the government is pushing for integrating AI and medical care in response to rapidly aging populations across the globe, with the hope that the “AI + medical care” solutions will help cut expenditure on health care and spur on development of precision medicine.

【2019-09-19 / Economic Daily News】