The government yesterday said it was looking to further integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into its healthcare system as part of modernization efforts while facing the challenges of a “super-aged society” and a rise in chronic diseases.
Speaking at a meeting of the healthcare advisory body under the Presidential Office, President William Lai (賴清德) described AI as a game-changing tool that is crucial to government efforts to transform the healthcare system from a disease-centered model to one focused on prevention and health promotion.
Through AI and other technologies, “we can build a smart healthcare system” that responds more swiftly to the needs of different age groups, Lai said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
While Taiwan is approaching a super-aged society, in which people aged 65 or older make up more than 20 percent of the population, the nation is also facing the growing risks of chronic diseases and other health challenges brought on by extreme weather events, he said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that AI is increasingly being applied across different areas of healthcare, including in the monitoring of communicable diseases, disease screening and diagnosis, diet management, and hospice care.
Shih in his report to the advisory body said that medical centers were also developing their own AI tools to streamline operations and deliver better services.
The pressing issue for the Ministry of Health and Welfare is to ensure that AI tools are used in accordance with legal and ethical standards, he said.
The ministry has developed AI guidelines aimed at ensuring autonomy, accountability, privacy, transparency, security, fairness and sustainability, but they have yet to be implemented in medical facilities in Taiwan, Shih said.
The ministry is also seeking to use AI to combine all medical data and databases in Taiwan into a unified, standardized system to address issues of data incompatibility and align the system with international standards, he said.
The security of medical digital infrastructure must be improved, he said, adding that a group of 387 hospitals that monitor and share information about cyberattacks was continuing to expand.
“The priority is to build up national-level cybersecurity defenses” to protect healthcare information, Shih added.
In a presentation on biotechnology, Food and Drug Administration Director-General Chiang Chih-kang (姜至剛) said that Taiwan’s biomedical industry would face a transition with the implementation of the “five strategies,” reducing the time it takes to introduce new drugs and “smart” materials to the market and normalizing their use.
The strategies — policy support, legal regulation, prioritizing technology implementation, expanding markets and increasing investment — have seen tangible successes, Chiang said.
The Executive Yuan has included biomedicine in the national “project of hope,” which would broaden its use in precision and smart medicine.
The Bio Taiwan Committee has proposed 18 measures for incorporating biomedicine, such as through AI and semiconductors, as well as improving supply chains and fostering talent, he said.
Regulation changes have decreased drug review times from 12 to eight months, Chiang said.
The agency has also reduced review times for specific projects from six to four months, he added.
The amount of time to introduce new drugs to the market is not just a number — it represents the rate at which people could receive better care, he said.
The National Infectious Diseases Bank was also included in the World Federation for Culture Collections last year, and a new building, which would be completed next year, would provide Taiwan with better capabilities to collect and preserve culture samples, as well as foster international collaboration, he said.
Additional reporting by Chiu Chih-jou
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