HEALTHCARE
Tourism summit planned
The nation is set to host the Asia segment of the annual World Medical Tourism and Global Healthcare Congress for the first time this year, organizers said yesterday. The Asia Conference is to take place next month, drawing together about 200 delegates from more than 25 countries to discuss the quality of healthcare in Asia, according to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. The conference will give attendees ample networking opportunities as they attend presentations from 15 healthcare experts from eight countries and from stakeholders in the region’s medical tourism industry, the council said. To help facilitate the process, about 200 one-on-one business meetings have been arranged and various exhibition booths are to be set up at the Taipei International Convention Center for the two-day event that begins on June 26, it added. It is part of the Medical Tourism Association’s annual international conference, which this year is to be held in Washington in September. The association’s first Asia meeting took place in South Korea in 2010.
TOURISM
Medical guide planned
The US-based Medical Tourism Association yesterday said it is to release a guide book on Taiwan’s health and wellness destinations at the World Medical Tourism and Global Healthcare Congress Taiwan next month. Seeing great potential in the nation, the association is to release the Taiwan Health and Wellness Destination Guide in both English and Mandarin and in both print and digital versions, association president Renee-Marie Stephano said in Taipei. The association has released similar guides for Jordan and US cities, such as Las Vegas and Miami, but the Taiwan guide will be the first Asian destination, she said. The guide is “designed to walk the patients through the decisionmaking process,” helping people choose a medical facility and providing information on what treatments are available, Stephano said.
CULTURE
Philadelphia Orchestra to play
Classical music fans are to have a rare opportunity when the Philadelphia Orchestra performs at the National Concert Hall in Taipei on June 5 for the first time in nine years. Led by French Canadian conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the program will include Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551 Jupiter and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major Titan, the promoter, Management of New Arts said. Taipei is the last leg of the orchestra’s Asian tour, which began on Wednesday last week and includes stops in China’s Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Shenzhen and Macau, as well as Tokyo. The orchestra, one of the US’ “Big Five,” last performed in Taiwan in 2005.
EDUCATION
AIT to hold summer camp
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), in collaboration with the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, is to hold a summer camp in Pingtung County for Taiwanese and Japanese college students to discuss environmental issues. The three-day camp from Aug. 29 to Aug. 31, is to focus on oceanography, green policy, eco-friendly art and sustainable business, the AIT said. Third and fourth-year university students can apply for the camp until Thursday next week, the AIT said. Last year, the AIT organized a similar program for 50 Taiwanese university students to discuss international relations, arts and culture, and the involvement of nongovernmental organizations in international affairs, at a two-day camp in Yilan County.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
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POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the