2025-04-25
Taiwan's strategic focus in digital healthcare has been officially integrated into national industrial policy and identified as a crucial application area for AI and next-generation communication technologies under the Five Trusted Industry Sectors. As healthcare industry rapidly undergoes digital transformation, digital healthcare technologies emerged as essential tools for improving medical quality and efficiency.
With its high coverage of National Health Insurance, technological advantages in the ICT sector, and government-driven regulatory reforms and infrastructure, Taiwan is accelerating the development of digital healthcare. The National Health Insurance system has amassed over 23 million individual medical records across more than 20 years. When combined with the MediCloud platform and electronic medical record-sharing mechanism, this provides a real-time, comprehensive foundation for AI applications and big data analytics in healthcare.
According to DIGITIMES Research, Taiwan's AI healthcare market is projected to grow from NT$360 million in 2023 to NT$1.12 billion by 2030, driven by supportive government policies, a robust ICT infrastructure, and active collaboration between healthcare providers and tech companies. Taiwan shows strong potential in both digital healthcare and AI development, leveraging its robust data assets, technological strengths, and policy support to build global competitiveness. It is steadily positioning itself as a key player in the global healthcare market.
I. Rising Applications of AI in Digital Healthcare: Maturity of technology and data-driven applications
The three pillars of AI applications are algorithms, computing power, and high-quality data. Due to the abundance of both structured and unstructured data —such as electronic medical records and information from wearable devices—healthcare has become one of the most promising sectors for AI integration.
Enhanced hardware capabilities and rapid advancements in AI algorithms have made the adoption of AI in medical settings increasingly feasible. Especially amidst the ongoing global shortage of healthcare personnel, AI is increasingly expected to serve as an auxiliary tool in addressing efficiency and quality issues.
II. Accelerating Deployment Across Eight Major Application Scenarios, with Imaging and Assisted Diagnosis at the Core
AI applications span eight areas in healthcare: medical imaging, surgical robots, assisted diagnosis, virtual assistants, drug development, precision medicine, medical research, and administrative process automation. Among these, medical imaging is the most mature, thanks to the large volume of data available in radiology departments, which is ideal for AI-powered image recognition.
Assisted diagnosis utilizes physiological data and test results to detect diseases. Applications in drug development and precision medicine can accelerate research and enhance medical innovation. Meanwhile, the integration of virtual assistants with generative AI is becoming increasingly common in digital health and wellness services.
III. Key to Successful Application: Data Volume, Disease Prevalence, and Cost-effectiveness.
Implementing AI requires careful consideration of available data volume and disease prevalence. Diseases with high prevalence or high mortality rates—such as cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, and cancer—are generally more suitable for resource investment. In addition, cost-effectiveness must be evaluated. AI applications in drug development can significantly shorten timelines and reduce development costs. Although automating administrative processes can alleviate the burden on human resources, high implementation costs may hinder adoption.
In recent years, Taiwan has achieved significant breakthroughs in digital healthcare AI applications. According to the 2024 Global Clinical Artificial Intelligence Dashboard, Taiwan was ranked 10th in the world with 1,331 published AI healthcare research papers, showcasing robust R&D capabilities.
In terms of practical implementation, Taiwan effectively integrates three key success factors. First, in terms of data availability, the National Health Insurance database has become a valuable resource for AI model training. For instance, China Medical University Hospital integrated a clinical database of 3 million people and developed 14 AI-assisted diagnostic tools. Acer's VeriOsteo OP utilizes extensive chest X-ray image data for AI analysis of abnormal bone density and has already obtained medical device certification.
Second, regarding disease prevalence, Taiwan’s Health Insurance Administration partnered with Google to develop an AI diabetes risk management system that can predict complications years in advance and provides personalized health management plans.
Third, in terms of cost-effectiveness, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and StreamTeck developed privacy-focused AI digital caregivers that leverage thermal imaging and millimeter-wave radar technology to reduce emergency response times from one hour to just one minute – thereby significantly enhancing remote care efficiency and reducing labor costs.
Jubo Health Technology’s JoyGood Health Management App provides home-based self-monitoring tools that enable family members to jointly manage elderly care. By bringing professional health management systems to home care, the app helps enhance care quality while reducing costs.
A noteworthy example of AI healthcare deployment in Taiwan is the collaboration between Siemens Healthineers, Ever Fortune AI, and Asia University Hospital. Together, they developed an AI-powered lung cancer screening technology that has successfully reduced diagnosis times by 40% and increased accuracy to 95%, significantly improving early detection. Additionally, they established a hybrid operating room that uses AI to optimize surgical planning and postoperative management, reducing postoperative risks by 15% and enhancing clinical treatment quality.
This achievement has also been extended internationally through a partnership with Vietnam's Hoa Lam Group, which adopted Taiwan's AI diagnostic system. The collaboration is expected to generate NT$1.2 billion in output by 2026. In this project, Siemens Healthineers provides medical imaging equipment and global distribution channels, Ever Fortune AI is responsible for AI algorithm development, and Asia University Hospital offers clinical data and a verification platform. Their close collaboration has not only strengthened Taiwan’s practical AI healthcare applications but also advanced its expansion into international markets, positioning Taiwan as a key contributor to the global smart healthcare industry.
As the global healthcare industry accelerates its digital transformation, Taiwan has established a solid foundation encompassing policy support, technological infrastructure, data resources, and clinical applications. Leveraging the National Health Insurance system’s data assets, strong ICT industry support, and close collaboration between medical institutions and technology companies, Taiwan is advancing AI applications from research to clinical practice and gradually expanding into international markets.
From medical imaging and disease prediction to intelligent diagnostics, Taiwan has shown concrete results and sustained innovation, securing its place in global medical AI development. With digital healthcare applications continuing to grow and international partnerships deepening, Taiwan is steadily building its position as one of the most compelling examples in the global smart healthcare ecosystem.
Source： Research and Analysis Team, Commercialization and Industry Service Center, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
MOEA
MOEA DOIP
MOEA YouTube
Let's Juiker Together
