Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) and Tucheng Hospital’s partnership propels tech-empowered medical diagnostics, focusing on AI-driven device CoDoctor ECG, efficient clinical trials, and out-of-hospital monitoring. This collaboration highlights Taiwan's strategic advantage in medical innovation.
Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) and Tucheng Hospital, which is managed by the team from Chang Gung Hospital Group, are spearheading a transformative partnership that is redefining smart medical device development and clinical trials in Taiwan. This collaboration is a strategic alignment of a global tech giant's vision with a modern hospital's agile capabilities, aiming to propel "technology-empowered healthcare" into a new era.
A Young Hospital's Unexpected Edge
Tucheng Hospital, despite being in operation for only five years, has quickly emerged as Hon Hai's ideal partner for clinical trials. Its flexible and innovative environment contrasts sharply with the often-layered complexities of traditional, larger medical centers. Vice President Dr. Yu Ming-Chin succinctly captures this dynamic: "Tucheng Hospital has only been in operation for five years, making it quite challenging to become a high-level certification research center. However, we are very confident in becoming an artificial intelligence center!". This forward-thinking mindset is a cornerstone of their success.
At the heart of this partnership is JY Meditech, a Hon Hai subsidiary dedicated to smart healthcare innovation. Their flagship product, CoDoctor Pro, integrates AI Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring application software and exemplifies the innovative energy driving this collaboration.
CoDoctor's single-lead design allows users to easily conduct heart rhythm detection by simply touching the device with both hands, a stark contrast to the more cumbersome 12-lead ECG devices commonly used in clinical practice. This emphasis on user convenience and accessibility underscores a critical understanding of real-world medical needs.
The true ingenuity of CoDoctor lies in its AI-driven approach. As Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) emphasizes, "Many manufacturers use algorithms to determine the type of arrhythmia, but we use AI". This distinction is crucial because AI thrives on real-world data, and the quality of this data must meet the stringent requirements of the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA). This necessity for extensive, high-quality data is precisely why large-scale clinical trials within a hospital setting are indispensable.
Tucheng Hospital: More Than Just a Trial Site
Tucheng Hospital's role extends far beyond merely being a recruitment site for clinical trials; it acts as a crucial technical consultant. Dr. Yu, leveraging his extensive clinical experience, has been instrumental in guiding the Hon Hai team in understanding CoDoctor's optimal market positioning. He astutely points out the impracticality of using 12-lead devices outside a hospital setting, where factors like patient electrode placement can significantly distort EKG waveforms. The genuine strength of CoDoctor, he argues, is not in competing with existing in-hospital equipment, but in filling the critical void in out-of-hospital monitoring.
This clinical insight is particularly relevant for conditions like atrial fibrillation, a common arrhythmia highly prone to causing strokes. Dr. Yu notes its sporadic nature makes it incredibly challenging to detect during a routine clinic visit. This observation directly shaped Co-Doctor's product strategy: the more frequent the measurements, the higher the chance of detecting abnormalities, highlighting the core value of a portable, single-lead device.
Prowess in AI and Operational Excellence
Tucheng Hospital's commitment to AI development is grounded in tangible research and demonstrable results. Dr. Yu himself serves as a prime example, having successfully developed a predictive model for liver cancer recurrence using data from 1,700 patients, achieving impressive accuracy with a C-index of 0.8 to 0.9 and specificities exceeding 0.95. This model can predict a patient's five-year postoperative recurrence risk, providing highly specific insights into their likelihood of not experiencing recurrence.
The impact of AI on research efficiency is profound. Dr. Yu vividly recalls the arduous nature of traditional clinical data analysis: "In the past, with traditional clinical data, doctors would sit down and start doing statistics, which might take a week". Now, with AI assistance, "these workloads can be completed in about a day, producing the exact same results I saw originally".
Tucheng Hospital Vice President Dr. Yu Ming-Chin.
The administrative efficiency of Tucheng Hospital is another critical factor in this successful partnership. Chen Ying, Director of Medical Scientific at Hon Hai's B Business Group(Digital Health Ecosystem) , acknowledges the inherent difficulties in securing hospital cooperation for R&D: "In the industry, a major difficulty is very hard to find a field and partner where you can invest long-term". However, Tucheng Hospital has not only been receptive but proactively engaged. Dr. Yu recounts the hospital's active participation in the Ministry of Health and Welfare's AI Center project, which not only legitimized their collaboration but, more importantly, standardized clinical trial procedures. This standardization eliminated previous ambiguities, streamlining the entire process.
Impressive Enrollment and Data Integrity
In the practical execution of clinical trials, Tucheng Hospital has demonstrated astonishing efficiency. For patient groups with conditions like atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia, the hospital anticipates completing the enrollment of nearly 600 patients by the end of this year. This remarkable figure is a testament to several unique strengths. Firstly, the hospital's large outpatient volume provides a rich pool of potential subjects. Secondly, patients exhibit a high degree of cooperation, very willing to participate in trials.
Moreover, Tucheng Hospital has meticulously designed a highly successful internal referral process through meticulous communication. Medical teams at the ground-floor outpatient department identify eligible patients and, following consultation, refer them to the trial office on the second floor. An on-site observation by the Institute for Biotech and Medicine Industry (IBMI) interview team confirmed the seamlessness of this process, with patients reaching the trial location in approximately one minute with just a turn, significantly reducing dropout rates and boosting enrollment success.
For AI products, data quality is paramount, as it directly dictates the performance of the final algorithm. Tucheng Hospital upholds medical center-level professional standards in this regard. Hon Hai specifically emphasizes the 3D principle of data collection: background, baseline, and foundational data. Beyond simply collecting basic ECG data, the hospital offers crucial cross-departmental cooperation, with specialists actively assisting in gathering diverse and representative data for special cases. This integrated approach is a distinct advantage of larger medical institutions.
Fostering Innovation and Market Impact
The close interaction between Hon Hai's R&D team and Tucheng Hospital is a catalyst for innovation. Enterprise teams gain immediate insights into product performance in real medical environments, while the hospital provides timely professional feedback, significantly enhancing CoDoctor's development. Beyond the current collaborations, both entities are actively co-developing novel applications.
Examples include a jaundice detection project aimed at early detection of pancreatic cancer through daily interactions and a Large Language Model (LLM) system for handover records, designed to alleviate nurses' administrative burden. These extended applications illustrate the potential for smart medical devices to evolve from standalone products to comprehensive platform services.
Tucheng Hospital's success is deeply rooted in its young and progressive team culture. Remarkably, approximately 10% of the hospital's physicians possess a genuine motivation for AI development, a notably high figure within Taiwan's medical community. This is further amplified by a healthy competitive atmosphere among peers, where seeing colleagues achieve results in AI development inspires others to follow suit. The hospital actively encourages this through well-defined incentive mechanisms, including patent awards and promotion advantages.
The B2B2C business model for the CoDoctor product line necessitates hospital validation of its applicability across various scenarios. Tucheng Hospital's collaborative experience has affirmed the suitability of these devices for deployment in diverse settings such as clinics, long-term care centers, and remote health stations. Hon Hai has already partnered with the Tzu Chi Foundation to donate remote medical equipment to rural health stations for mobile medical services.
In Kaohsiung's smart city initiative, CoDoctor has been implemented in community long-term care centers, enabling seniors to monitor their vital signs during daily activities. These real-world application validations provide robust support for CoDoctor's market expansion. Dr. Yu articulates the broader vision, stating, "It's not about how much Hon Hai's machine can help the hospital by being used within the hospital today, but rather that it can take care of people outside the hospital".
Taiwan's Strategic Advantage in Smart Healthcare
The collaborative model between Tucheng Hospital and Hon Hai showcases Taiwan's distinctive strengths in smart medical devices. Taiwan offers high-quality and efficient clinical trial services that contrast favorably with the higher costs and prolonged timelines often seen in Europe and America. A significant advantage for Hon Hai is the immense computing power at its disposal.
A state-of-the-art supercomputing center in Kaohsiung provides the advanced resources required for large-scale AI training, further reinforcing Taiwan’s strategic edge in digital health innovation. This seamless integration of cutting-edge software and hardware represents a core competitive strength for Taiwan's technology sector as it ventures into the medical domain.
Tucheng Hospital's success story vividly illustrates that in the burgeoning landscape of smart medical devices, hospitals are no longer mere consumers of technology but proactive drivers of innovation. Through their professional clinical trial capabilities, open collaborative approach, and the innovative spirit of their young team, Taiwan's medical institutions are rapidly becoming sought-after partners for smart medical enterprises globally.
（Producer: Sophie Y. Wu／Writer: Chiyuan Chou／Adapted by Judy Lin／Editor: Lihua Wang)
【Deep Read】From Trials to Triumph: Smart Medical Device Pioneers
