Healthcare in Taiwan is changing from a “service” to a “industry” as a result of the development of 5G, 8K, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Businesses, the government, and academic circles are all eager to create smart healthcare.
Ted Chang, CTO and VP of Quanta Computer and the director of the Quanta Research Institute (QRI), believes that a paradigm shift is crucial for the growth of the sector. The issue, he said, is for newcomers to outperform their predecessors, even when advances are encouraging. He added that cross-domain cooperation frequently lead to larger breakthroughs and opportunities.
Chang noted that this challenge is an international one, similar to smart healthcare. Numerous problems, including the aging population, a lack of medical resources, and a disparity in medical services between urban and rural areas, existed long before COVID-19. As a result, each segment needs to be connected using digital technology in order to create a whole network of medical services. Additionally, the interruptions brought on by unforeseen events like bad weather, environmental changes, and pandemics have propelled the adoption of digital technology even more.
The challenge for the healthcare system is how to give the AI access to the crucial data gathered by IoT devices for training and deployment to the end user for diagnosis. This, in the eyes of the sector, is the result of the transformation of standardized goods into data thinking.
Digital twins are also an important part of smart healthcare. Chang emphasized that the human body is a highly complicated system. The neural network will help develop a synthetic twin that is even more similar to the actual human body if it is provided with a lot of data. Different digital twin models can be produced by integrating different types of data.
This digital strategy was used by Boeing when creating the Boeing 777. Boeing was able to avoid the significant expenditures associated with physical tests by designing and testing the airliner virtually. Similar to this, future medical procedures like administering medication could be more effective and precise if every organ could have a digital twin.
Taiwan’s initiatives at APEC include digital healthcare. Chang, who represents Taiwan in the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), noted that every economy is at a distinct stage of growth. Everyone needs to think about how to incorporate each other’s technology. Additionally, changes are being made to business models and health practices as a result of the pandemic. The next point of emphasis will be on determining the reasonable and necessary technology.
Ted Chang, CTO, VP, and director of the Quanta Research Institute at Quanta Computer (QRI) Image from Digital Times Asia, August 2022
