■ By Pat Gao

Tube samples are prepared for analysis in a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer at state-backed Development Center for Biotechnology in Taipei City. (Photos by Pang Chia-shan)

Taiwan’s biomedical industries embrace information and communication technology as part of government plans for a future-proof health care sector.

Taiwan’s growth in the health and well-being, medical and pharmaceutical sectors has accelerated since the ongoing Biomedical Industry Innovation Program was launched by the government shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016. The program aims to build biomedical products and services into a flagship industry worth NT$1 trillion (US$34 billion) by 2025. In May 2020, the president listed biotech and medical technology among the six core strategic industries during her second-term inaugural address.

Wide-ranging government policy support seeks to foster a hospitable environment for public and private entities engaged in the industry. These include the government-backed organization, Taipei City-based Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB), established in 1984 to help Taiwan become the first to conduct universal vaccinations for all newborns against hepatitis B.

Now located at National Biotechnology Research Park, the DCB continues to work on a variety of projects in such emerging fields as cell therapy and precision medicine, as well as new drug development. A stable financial framework featuring contributions from both foreign and local venture capital has played a significant role in helping fulfill the promise of the potential-laden sector, according to DCB Chairman Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲).

Dietary supplements are produced in a biomedical plant owned by Taipeiheadquartered TCI Co. in the southern county of Pingtung. (Photos by Pang Chia-shan)

As a former minister of health, Twu is especially excited about the potential for Taiwan’s homegrown information and communication technology heavyweights to extend their expertise to the medical and health care sectors. For example, the world’s leading electronics manufacturer, New Taipei City-headquartered Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is the main financer behind Taipeibased National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Cancer Center, which opened in July 2019 and is working on a high-precision treatment using protons to treat tumors.

Taiwan’s leading role in the global supply of semiconductors means it is ideally placed to integrate the latest technologies into the biotech and medical sector, according to computer scientist Ethan Tu (杜奕瑾). “We produce the building blocks of innovation,” he said. In 2017, Tu founded Taiwan AI Labs in Taipei. The privately funded research organization seeks to promote the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic institutions, nongovernmental groups and enterprises through data exchanges and open-source projects.

According to Tu, health care is the ideal field to expand the use of AI, which has the ability to quickly conduct big data analyses and modeling. Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) Research Database contains over two decades worth of data and images to assist in this process. With access to such a rich resource, Tu’s team is looking to put its combined expertise to good use in the field of precision medicine, providing customized treatment plans tailored to individual patients. This is achieved by combining NHI data with information from wearable sensors recording heartbeat, blood pressure, blood sugar and oxygen saturation. “It’s ultimately about prevention, making sure people are aware of the warning signs before they get ill,” Tu said. “We hope to relieve the burden on hospitals resulting from avoidable conditions by utilizing the power of AI.”

The office of Taipei-based Taiwan AI Labs is filled with the latest artificial intelligenceassisted systems tailored for medical applications. (Photos by Pang Chia-shan)

In December 2020, AI Labs launched a federated machine learning alliance made up of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s (MOHW) NHI Administration, NTU Hospital and other medical centers around the country dedicated to innovative applications for AI in health care. The results already look promising, including AI-assisted systems for reading chest X-rays to detect pneumonia and for filtering magnetic resonance images to identify brain tumors.

Tu also heads the Taiwan AI Federated Learning Alliance. Launched in January 2021, the group is jointly supported by the MOHW and Ministries of Culture, Economic Affairs, Science and Technology, and Transportation and Communications, as well as the Cabinet-level National Development Council. Guest of honor at the alliance’s inaugural meeting was Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), an internal medicine physician who was among the first individuals in government to call for the accelerated integration of AI applications in the medical sector. “Let’s march forward toward a smart island and digital nation,” Lai said. “There’s no time 03 like the present.”

► Next-Gen Medicine
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