More than 500 exhibitors are showcasing their latest innovations at the Taiwan HealthCare Expo, which began at the Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei yesterday.
Tech companies developing smart medicine products are represented alongside medical supply and pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals.
Diverse topics in healthcare have been addressed, including Kaohsiung Medical University’s virtual reality “nostalgia therapy” for people with Alzheimer’s disease and Chimei Hospital’s 3D printed device to prevent air from getting into feeding tubes.
Photo: CNA
However, the spotlight was on products that incorporate the latest 5G, high-resolution sensor chips and Internet of Things technology, as well as developments to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
LCD panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) unveiled a high-resolution surgery display, while Taipei Medical University Hospital showed off a contactless COVID-19 treatment platform that allows medical professionals to monitor a patient’s condition remotely, reducing contact and thus infection risks.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in the keynote speech at the opening ceremony, said that Taiwan’s stellar performance in combating COVID-19 presents it with a chance to play a more prominent role in the world’s medical supply chains.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
“Taiwan can help, and not just with masks,” Tsai said. “When we develop our medical technology, we are not only ensuring the health of our citizens, but contributing to the well-being of the world.”
Taiwan displayed “capability” and “confidence” in the fight against COVID-19, Tsai said, adding that local businesses must “seize the moment” and secure their place in the worldwide medical industry supply chain.
“The supply chain realignments we have seen this year present a chance for Taiwan to become better positioned,” she said.
“Information and communications technology, and the medical/biotech industries are two pillars holding up Taiwanese industry,” Tsai said. “Businesses from those two fields must cooperate to create the digital transition of the medical industry.”
The government must “think hard” about how to support the development of the Taiwanese biotech and medical industries, she said, adding that the government would accelerate the digital transformation of healthcare and secure enough supplies of key raw materials to build up the nation’s healthcare capability.
Still, the government needs to think about what role it is going to play, and what regulations and laws would best serve the digital transition of the medical industry, Tsai said.
“How do we best use our advantage in the information and communication technology sector to make Taiwan the digital medicine hub of the world in the post-COVID-19 pandemic world?” she said.
The expo has brought together 550 companies and organizations, and 150 start-ups for a total of 1,580 booths at the Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1. The fair runs through Sunday.
Additional reporting by CNA
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts