As smart healthcare becomes a global trend, customized care and predictive medicine will become mainstream disciplines, Vice President Chen Chien-jen said, adding that backed by advantages including the National Health Insurance dataset, well-rounded medical and information and communication technology industries, development of related industries will be quickened and bring improvements to peoples’ daily lives.

The two-day 2019 Taiwan Joint Conference in HealthCare Symposium 2019 began on Oct. 2, gathering experts from the medical, technology and public health as well as academics to discuss the latest trends on medical artificial intelligence (AI) and how to promote cross-industry collaborations to bring about Taiwan’s next wave of industrial transformation.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said that although Taiwan has excellent capabilities in medical care and AI, there has not been examples of commercialization. Now is the time for the government to take the charge in top-down leadership for the future.

Minister Chen said that in recent years, the Ministry of Science and Technology has been actively pursuing the industrialization of medical AI. By contrast, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has been quite passive in the endeavor, with the brunt of the work being done by disparate efforts by hospitals and medical centers. Minister Chen promised that the MOHW will take a much more active role and has tasked the National Health Research Institutes to devise overarching plans for the development of precision medicine and other related projects.

【2019-10-03 / CNA】