Differentiation and customization are two major concerns for biomedical startups when they foray into the market for smart healthcare solutions, as many hospitals and care centers hope to have their own distinct medical services and technologies, according to Ken Yu, CEO of iMedtac, a Taiwan-based provider of AIoT healthcare solutions.
Yu said Taiwan's ICT and medical resources can be integrated to enhance cross-department management, medical treatment flow improvement and medical intelligence system operations. At the moment, China outperforms Taiwan in some medical departments and technologies, but Taiwan still has its own advantages in the smart healthcare sector, including solid inter-department integration, sound hospital management and strong data accuracy, Yu commented, adding that Taiwan has to accelerate incorporation of new technologies and applications to build its leadership in the sector.
In Taiwan and Japan, construction of long-term care centers has been unable to catch up with the aging of the population, and therefore the medical sector agrees that homecare services will see increasingly important development. Yu said call centers and cloud systems can be integrated to have nurses and care staffers render services to the needy within one square kilometer. Bolstered by the ICT technology, any given care center can build a community medical and care ecosystem while also addressing part of the shortages of homecare forces.
Long-term care institutions differ from general businesses in profit-gaining models and smart healthcare devices will entail higher prices during the R&D stage and initial market penetration. Accordingly, to secure smooth development of the smart long-term care industry, sales of services and renting of the devices will become a more feasible practice. In addition, based on the top-down model, superintendents and board of directors at hospitals will determine what smart software and hardware solutions to incorporate so as to boost the performance and efficiency of doctors, examiners, nurses, and treatments for patients, according to Yu.