The Eye on Taiwan news staff
Taiwan’s leading computer maker Acer has teamed up with three major hospitals in Taiwan to provide remote health management services across the island.
The collaboration, which brings together Acer, the Taipei Medical University Hospital (TMUH) in northern Taiwan, Changhua Christian Hospital (CCH) in central Taiwan and Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMUH) in southern Taiwan, aims to expand the promotion of remote health management and cloud-based smart healthcare services, Acer said in a press release.
The cross-industry collaboration will combine online and offline resources in the fields of healthcare, information technology, and smart devices, it said.
In a recent news conference announcing the cooperation, Acer Cloud Technology Chairman Maverick Shih said remote healthcare has become a global trend and Taiwan’s health ministry has also announced the draft of “Regulations of Telemedicine Treatment,” which are expected to relax the restrictions on remote healthcare services.
“Before the draft launches, Acer is excited to be working with Taiwan’s three leading medical teams in this area,” he was quoted as saying in the press release.
“By combining our online and offline expertise and resources in terms of technology and healthcare, we are able to develop comprehensive healthcare services for smart cities and popularize them through cloud-based health management services across Taiwan,” he noted.
Tsai Shu-nuan, associate dean of the Taipei Medical University Hospital, said in the same event that with elderly care and chronic diseases becoming key issues in modern medicine, remote healthcare services are a great solution by monitoring patients’ health and addressing issues before treatment is needed, and providing preventive measures to reduce the chance of acute symptoms occurring.
He said TMUH established its remote healthcare center five years ago, providing comprehensive, holistic and around-the-clock services, which offers patients online access to on-duty doctors if necessary, as well as continuous remote healthcare.
“More importantly, we can track our members’ vital signs remotely, offering complete, personalized and systematic remote healthcare, he was quoting as saying.
“TMUH has developed a mature method of remote healthcare service, and through the collaboration with Acer, we hope to jointly expand our services to workplace environments with accurate recording, professional monitoring, and real-time response, making a contribution to the healthcare industry in Taiwan,” Tsai said.
Changhua Christian Hospital Superintendent Kuo Shou-jen said the main purpose of remote healthcare is to go with e-health.
“Changhua Christian Hospital (CCH) isn’t merely confined to Changhua city or within Taiwan, but is a part of the world’s medical system, and competitive worldwide; therefore, there is no real distance between countries, and with Acer actively developing remote healthcare platform for smart cities, and cooperating with pioneering hospitals such as TMUH in the northern Taiwan, CCH in the central Taiwan and KMUH in the southern Taiwan, everyone can have access to health consulting and even healthcare via the Internet,” Kuo was quoted as saying in the same event.
Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Vice Superintendent Liu Der-ming said with the Long-Term Care Act 2.0 on the road, remote healthcare development has become the future trend.
“Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital has been servicing the local community for over 60 years, and since 2012 our hospital has received the Symbol of National Quality for remote healthcare service every year,” he was quoted as saying.
“Our hospital has been undertaking Kaohsiung City’s remote healthcare services project for the past three years, since 2014, for which we promoted community and in-home remote healthcare service in all 38 districts and provided health management services to over 6,000 Kaohsiung citizens. We believe that we can serve more people through the collaboration between KMUH and Acer’s aBeing Wellness Smart Healthcare Platform,” Liu said.
Citing the World Health Organization, Acer said people spending over one-third of their day at their workplace, and therefore the workplace is one of the best places to promote health.
Seeing the potential of remote healthcare and the importance of health promotion, Acer said it has been working with CCH since 2017 to introduce a remote health management system for Acer and AU Optronics Corp. to offer such services for the workplace.
This year, the number of collaborating companies is expected to grow, while Acer and CCH will jointly expand the services beyond Taiwan, and establishing a collaboration model for medical centers and technology companies, it said.
