Several Taiwanese businesses yesterday showcased their “smart” surgical technologies at a forum in Taipei that was attended by about 200 medical experts from around the world.
The forum, titled “Future of Surgery,” was hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Biomedical Development Board and the Central Taiwan Science Park, and co-organized by the Institute for Research on Cancers of the Digestive Tract (IRCAD) Taiwan.
The nation’s medical device sector last year generated revenue of about NT$146.3 billion (US$4.99 billion), which is nearly 30 percent of the biomedical industry’s total revenue and the second-largest after the social welfare sector’s NT$162.5 billion, ministry data showed last month.
The ministry has been working to promote the integration of local brands and the industrial innovation of businesses, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) said during a speech at the forum’s opening.
IRCAD France chief executive officer Jacques Marescaux, Visible Patient president Luc Soler and other executives from companies including Siemens Healthineers, Intuitive Surgical and Karl Storz also addressed the trends affecting the global medical device industry.
EPED Inc (醫百科技) presented a real-time navigation system for brain and craniofacial surgery. The system, called Retina, allows a surgeon to quickly and precisely find abnormal tissues in the brain.
By using the system’s augmented reality goggles to peer into patients’ bodies, surgeons would not be distracted by having to look at endoscopic monitors, company sales engineer Casey Lee (李耿直) said, adding that the system is being used at Kaohsiung Medical University.
Evolve Development Co (進化開發) showcased its “smart medicare service cloud,” which integrates medical service and hospital registration devices and TV broadcasts on a tablet computer, allowing medical personnel to understand patients’ needs before visiting them.
The company aims to develop “smart” hospital beds with multiple functions, company general manager Eric Lee (李元甫) said, adding that a trial version of the system has been installed at Chung Shan Hospital and the Central Clinic and Hospital in Taipei.
The firm is not planning to produce service robots as they lack the human “warmth” that is the essence of medical care, it said, but added that it might develop robots to help convey medicines in hospitals.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
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