The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday announced that it would launch an online medical information platform, saying that its short-term goal is facilitating the sharing of healthcare data between medical centers, so that patients would not need to request copies of their files.
The Department of Information Management said one of the greatest challenges of smart healthcare development in Taiwan is the fragmentation of healthcare data, as hospitals have developed their own electronic medical record systems.
Although Taiwan has an advanced healthcare system and a strong information industry, healthcare information cannot be shared between hospitals due to the lack of a standardized data format, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lue Jen-der (呂建德) said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The launch of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), a standardized electronic healthcare data storage system, would allow smooth exchanges of data between hospitals, Lue said.
Department of Information Management Director Lee Chien-chang (李建璋) said the three core focuses of the new platform are: “data unification,” “rules unification” and “application unification.”
The first goal of data unification is to have a nationwide unified format for electronic medical records, Lee said.
Different countries have different FHIR implementation standards, he said, adding that there are 23 countries that have established their FHIR implementation guidelines.
The ministry hopes to initially allow at least the 109 most common items in medical records, such as gender, age, height, and chronic conditions and medications, to be exchanged between 23 medical centers in the next two years.
The ministry would introduce a clinical quality language (CQL), a standardized and domain-specific programming language, as well as a rule library to achieve rule unification, he said.
Through the CQL, hospitals would be able to automatically check if their diagnoses and prescriptions meet the required standards, which would improve service efficiency, he said.
The ministry would also set up an artificial intelligence (AI) medical application ecosystem similar to Apple and Google’s app stores to achieve application unification, so that hospitals can freely download and apply AI technology to improve their clinical decisionmaking efficiency, he added.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or