President Tsai met with 25 award-winning teams at the presidential hall on 21 February, which marked Taiwan’s profession in healthcare amid the global public health crisis.
The silver medal holder, the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) chemotherapy team led by National Taiwan University Hospital, had improved the AML seven-year survival rate by 42% that outpaced countries with quality healthcare systems, such as Japan, Germany and US. The team at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, which had developed universal guidelines to treating oral cavity cancer with free flap reconstruction, was the champion 2019 in terms of patients successfully treated (over 10,000), research papers published (103), research partnerships developed (11 medical centres, 9 countries) and publications cited (432 as per the impact factor).
Taiwan’s medical expertise has a great influence over global treatment guidelines, including those on children enteroviral infection, hepatitis type C, nasopharyngeal cancer and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Wen-Jin Cherng, superintendent of Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, appreciated the award that had been promoting achievements in therapeutics over the past 22 years. He thus proposed that the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Foreign Affairs work with Research Center for Biotechnology and Medicine Policy (RBMP) to put together training materials using that of evidence-based cases for publicity. Taiwan shall gain a strong foothold in WHO with its expertise and experience in healthcare altogether, Cherng added.
Jin-Pyng Wang, Chairman RBMP, shared with all that the Healthcare+ Expo Taiwan since 2017 has grown rapidly in event scale and increasingly in global participation, having attracted healthcare communities worldwide (e.g. World Medical Association, American Medical Association, Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia) and 50 hospital leaderships to visit and explore partnership opportunities. The Expo aims to develop Taiwan as a medical innovation hub with medical institutes, connect wider healthcare industries ranging from electronics, ICT to life sciences to global markets, and spark cross-industry dialogues and collaboration in healthcare.
