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.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS