The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday announced the establishment of three artificial intelligence (AI) centers to help achieve its smart medicine (e-health) goals, adding that 16 “indicator hospitals” have been selected to test and demonstrate the technology.
The centers include the center for responsible AI execution, the center for clinical AI certification and the center for AI impact research, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) said.
The centers would help solve three major challenges in e-health development — “implementation,” “evidence” and “payment” — he said, adding that the AI centers could also lead to more advanced medical services.
Photo: CNA
The launching of the centers is “an important milestone in Taiwan’s smart medical development,” Chiu said. “It also reflects the government’s goal of advancing e-health and ensuring the nation’s competitiveness in the global medical field.”
“Especially when facing the challenges of a low birthrate and an aging society, we must speed up the introduction of e-health technology to enhance long-term care policies, improve the healthcare environment, optimize medical resource allocation, and ensure the National Health Insurance’s (NHI) sustainable development,” he added.
Lee Chien-chang (李建璋), director of the ministry’s Department of Information Management, said that introducing AI products for clinical applications poses three major challenges.
Many doctors and patients do not trust AI or have personal data security concerns, while some AI products have faced challenges in obtaining certification or licensing and standards for calculating NHI payments for the use of clinical AI applications have not been set, he said.
The center for responsible AI execution would be tasked with establishing information security and privacy protection management regulations, as well as publicizing AI models, data, effectiveness and other information to improve AI application transparency, Lee said, adding that it would also routinely examine its processes to ensure reliability.
The center for clinical AI certification would work with the Food and Drug Administration to speed up the certification of AI products, he said.
The center also aims to form an alliance of hospitals and assist manufacturers in the certification of their AI products, to accelerate product development and provide Taiwanese access to better e-health products, he said.
Regarding the hundreds of AI-assisted e-health products that have already been licensed, but are not yet covered by the NHI, the center for AI impact research would work with the NHI Administration to establish clinical trial mechanisms for scientifically determining an AI products’ efficacy, which would provide data for assessing NHI coverage, Lee said.
Sixteen hospitals have passed a three-phase evaluation to become “indicator hospitals” for the three centers, including National Taiwan University Hospital, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei’s and Taichung’s Veterans General hospitals, China Medical University and Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, the ministry said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS