President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and tech leaders at a conference on the biomedical industry yesterday praised the industry chain that has taken shape in Taiwan and artificial intelligence’s (AI) potential in healthcare.
In a speech at this year’s Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry (IBMI) annual general meeting, Tsai said that during her eight years in office, the IBMI connected Taiwan’s medical, biotech and technology sectors in producing a biomedical industry chain.
“Building on the foundation of the National Health Insurance system and Biobank, we have developed a big data healthcare system,” Tsai said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The nation’s biomedical sector has harnessed these and other domestic technological advantages to expand international commercial opportunities, she said.
Tsai, who is to leave office in May, said Taiwan has become a crucial hub for international biomedical innovation and research, and she hoped for more cross-sector collaboration in Taiwan to further advance the biomedical industry.
Quanta Computer chairman and IBMI vice president Barry Lam (林百里) said that such collaboration would help bring AI to the nation’s healthcare and medical systems.
Through cooperation between academia, the healthcare system and the information technology sector, the power of new AI technologies could be harnessed and used to collectively address health and medical challenges.
“Generative AI not only represents the latest technological revolution, but also has immense potential to transform medicine, making it a likely major driver of the healthcare sector,” Lam said.
Asustek chairman and IBMI director Jonney Shih (施崇棠) presented his company’s approach to smart healthcare in a separate session at the conference on building a digital foundation for future healthcare services.
Shih said the COVID-19 pandemic had reshaped the medical and healthcare sectors, and accelerated their digital transformation in a way that could yield precision health and virtual care.
After playing a pre-recorded conversation of a patient seeking information on how to handle an ailment such as finding an appropriate doctor, from the company’s AI robot “Zenbo,” Shih said that the future of medical services would depend on innovative digital technologies centered around AI.
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