President Tsai met and celebrated with the award winners at the presidential hall on 18 February, there were 29 teams with remarkable achievements in medical and research excellence. The awarding committee also issued a special award in recognition of outperforming hospitals that have been tasked with Covid-19 detection and treatment amid the virus outbreak.

Sitting top on the list is the team on Fabry’s Disease led by Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Its Rare Disease Medical Research Center has the largest genome database related to the disease, conducts research work and informs the treatment guideline in such fields. Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH) and National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), both won the silver medal, have received an acknowledgement of treating lymphatic obstruction and heart failure respectively. The Lymphedema Treatment Center at CGMH is the first in the world which applies flap transfer to primary and secondary lymphedema, resulting in a smashing success (98%) in surgery. The Cardiovascular Center at NTUH has taken the second place by its ‘Double Bridge’- a therapy enhances the heart transplant patient’s chance of survival by 82.3% that exceeded the percentage posted by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

SNQ and the National Biotechnology and Medical Care Quality Award have been regarded as ‘Taiwan’s Oscar in biomedical fields’, attracting more applicants than expected in 2020 despite facing the global pandemic. President Tsai expressed her gratitude during the meeting with the award winners, who are also healthcare workers, for their dedication to epidemic prevention.

▲President Tsai meeting with the award winners (photo curtesy Office of the President Taiwan)

The award winners were accompanied by Jin-Pyng Wang, Chairman RBMP and Wei-Chao Chen, SNQ awarding committee convenor. Chen in his remark mentioned he is impressive by seeing persistence shown in the biomedical industry: ‘The teams here went extra miles to deliver their work of the highest quality than what we could have hoped for- from rapid testing kits, face mask production to all the other applications in epidemic prevention.’ He also gave special thanks to Taipei Hospital under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital, Tri-Service General Hospital and Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital for their achievements in confining the virus.

Several superintendents were present on behalf of the winning teams led by respective hospitals, their remarks are indicated below.

'It is a remarkable experience to have the team selected and competed with other candidates, the award indeed motivates everyone in pursuit of excellence and competitiveness.'- Wayne Sheu, Superintendent of Taipei Veterans General Hospital 

'Although the team in NTUH is an inch close to the gold medal, we are proud to witness world-class healthcare in Taiwan and are certain about the panel of judges being fair and open with candidates equally competent. I would recommend that some publicity for which award winners have achieved can be the advantage for Taiwan’s participation in WHO.'- Ming-Shiang Wu, Superintendent of National Taiwan University Hospital

'Taiwan’s healthcare sector united and learned from each other add momentum to industry development and progressing.'- Wen-Jin Cherng, Superintendent of Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital

'There are also people who provide administrative support and work seamlessly with healthcare frontliners on patient care and epidemic control, their contribution should be admired.'- Sheng-Mao Hou, Superintendent, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital / Chairman, Taiwan Blood Services Foundation

Jui-Yuan Hsueh, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and David Lee, Secretary-General to the President, joined Tsai in the meeting with the award winners. President concluded that the government is doing everything in its power to secure Covid-19 vaccines, which will be made available to healthcare workers as soon as the beginning of Q2. The government will keep on with efforts of making Taiwan’ biomedical strength indispensable to the world.