Taiwan’s latest medical-instrument innovations will make it easier for the public to keep an eye on their health at home, the organizer of a medical exhibition said yesterday.
The 2010 Mediphar Taipei, scheduled to run from Nov. 11 until Nov. 14, will be attended by more than 270 foreign buyers from 43 countries. It will feature nine winners of the Mediphar Innovation Awards and hundreds of other innovative Taiwan-made products, the Formosan Medical Association said at a press conference.
Association secretary-general Wu Kwan-dun said the annual awards founded in 2005 have encouraged local innovators to focus their talents on healthcare instruments for use at home.
“Increasing numbers of people are discovering they can take care of themselves at home using these innovative instruments,” Wu said.
One of the prize-winning products to be featured at the exhibition is a digital video otoscope made by Apple BioMedical. Equipped with a 2.4-inch screen, it allows users to check patients’ ear channels and produces larger images than optical otoscopes, which have more limited viewing functions.
Users can also save the digital images to a computer and then send them to their doctors by e-mail, the company said.
The annual output value of Taiwan’s medical instrument industry has risen from NT$74 billion (US$2.42 billion) in 2007, to NT$79 billion in 2008 and NT$82.5 billion last year, said Chen Ben, chairman of the Taiwan Medical and Biotech Industry Association.
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