ITRI showcases AI assistant, endoscopy robot at Smart Healthcare Summit

ITRI showcases AI assistant, endoscopy robot at Smart Healthcare Summit

2024-06-26

At the 2024 Smart Healthcare Summit organized by the economics ministry, top industry players from Taiwan and abroad explored AI applications in medical care. The Industrial Technology Research Institute, or ITRI, showcased its latest AI-powered innovations, such as a generative AI assistant that produces medical records. It also displayed a system that uses AI image recognition to support pulmonary endoscopies.

Organized by the economics ministry, the 2024 Smart Healthcare Summit put the spotlight on AI applications. The world’s biomedical leaders were invited to participate, to give Taiwanese firms a chance to connect and collaborate.

Eric Chuang
ITRI vice president
ITRI has invested significant resources into developing AI for a variety of fields. In Taiwan today, all the major medical centers and hospitals are moving toward becoming smart hospitals. ... How do we use AI to support hospital operations? Due to the three, four years of the pandemic, telemedicine has become an important field today.

Tai Chien-cheng
Department of Industrial Technology official
Taiwan is not only a medical device user, but also inventor as well as a producer. The forum brought every essential factors, players together.

With support from the economics ministry’s Department of Industrial Technology, ITRI invested R&D resources in pursuing AI health care opportunities.

This is a generative AI assistant that works as doctors converse with their patients. Using speech recognition, it converts audio containing both English and Chinese, as well as medical terminology, into medical records, helping to ease the physician workload. AI can also be applied to lung examinations and procedures. During a traditional endoscopy, a thin tube is moved down to the lungs, in a process that relies on physician experience. AI-assisted image recognition can be used to guide the endoscope to problematic tissue, making the procedure safer and more efficient.

Rodolphe Katra
Medtronic VP of artificial intelligence
You need good universities, good talent, good health care systems, government support, and recognition of international intellectual property participation. … It makes Taiwan a very good candidate for participating in the global space for health care, using AI.

The biomedical industry will be the next “sacred mountain” that protects the nation, ITRI said. It urged Taiwan to harness its medical and tech strengths to shine bright on the global stage.

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智慧醫療商機大! 工研院展示"AI助理.手術機器人"

2024-06-26

經濟部舉辦2024國際智慧醫療論壇，探討AI醫療應用，現場不只邀請國際生醫大廠參加，工研院更展示多項技術。像是生成式AI華語醫療助理，快速幫醫護人員做醫療紀錄，還有透過AI影像辨識，讓醫生在進行肺部內視鏡檢查時，更安全和快速。

經濟部舉辦2024國際智慧醫療論壇，主題環繞在智慧醫療，這次更找來多家生醫大廠參加，期盼能拓展台灣產業與國際合作的機會。

[[工研院副總暨生醫所所長莊曜宇]]
“工研院在利用AI，在各個不同的領域，其實投入非常多的資源，現在台灣各大醫學中心醫院，也都在朝向智慧醫院，怎麼利用AI來協助整個醫院的運作，3到4年的疫情的關係，所以現在其實遠距醫療，這個也是一個非常重要”

[[經濟部技術司簡任技正戴建丞]]
“台灣不只是醫療器材的使用者，也是發明者、生產者，這次論壇集合了，所有(智慧醫療)關鍵角色”

在經濟部產業技術司支持下，工研院投入研發資源，布局AI醫療商機。

醫生幫病人看診，生成式AI助理透過語音辨識，內容中英夾雜、有醫療用語，也能把對話轉成病歷紀錄，減輕醫護工作負擔。AI還可以套用在肺部檢查和治療上，傳統內視鏡進到支氣管裡，全靠醫師累積的經驗，調整移動方向，但有了AI幫忙影像辨識，可以引導內視鏡往哪裡去，找出有問題的組織，更快速和安全完成手術。

[[美敦力全球AI副總裁 Rodolphe Katra]]
“(生態系)需要好大學，好人才，好的健保和政府支持，以及國際智慧財產權認證，這些條件都讓台灣，成為一個非常好的候選人，在國際上參與AI智慧醫療”

工研院強調，生醫產業是下一個護國群山，要利用醫療和資通訊實力，讓世界看見台灣。

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ASE predicts accelerated growth in second half, plans capex increase

ASE Technology, a leading chip packager and tester, held its shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday. The company predicted that revenue growth will accelerate in the second half of the year, driven by the AI boom. ASE plans to increase its capital spending, putting the bulk of it into the packaging business to meet surging demand.

ASE Technology, a leading chip packaging and testing services provider, held its shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday. Due to the global economy’s slow recovery in 2023, ASE posted consolidated revenue of NT$581.9 billion last year, down 13.3% from 2022. Its profit from operations fared worse, declining by nearly 50% to NT$40.3 billion. But on Wednesday, top executives said that the global chip sector was rebounding, bolstered by AI and robotics. They projected that revenue will recover in 2024.

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Jhubei is also planning to build tennis courts in the future, filling this technological city with life and improving its look.

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Sichuanese immigrant leads tours of Donggang fishing culture

Originally from Chengdu, China, Shao Limei now lives with her husband in his hometown of Donggang in Pingtung. Although they originally worked in the tech industry, they returned to Donggang to take over his parents’ fishing business. Shao soon started learning about all the different kinds of fish. Now an expert, she leads tours introducing the culture of this famous port.

Originally from Chengdu, Shao Limei leads tourists around the Donggang fish market. Her husband Lin Wen-feng grew up here and they returned together five years ago. Shao started leading these tours not only to satisfy her own intellectual curiosity, but also to give tourists the chance to see the fishing industry with their own eyes.

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In addition to giving tours of the port, they also cooperate with local groups to organize cultural tours of fishing villages.

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Donggang is already famous for its seafood, but no one is really offering these kinds of tours. I find it really moving how people are genuinely interested in this port’s culture. It makes the work meaningful.

Shao and Lin used to be managers in the tech industry, but became business owners when they returned to Donggang. Originally intending to start a retail delivery service, they unexpectedly entered the souvenir market. They renovated their store to make it stylish and redesigned the branding and packaging, gaining recognition from many public departments.

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Every store in Donggang sells fresh products, so how can you get more people to see you or buy your products for gifts to increase their value? On the one hand, I feel more pressure and want to do even better, but on the other hand, I think we should continue to pursue this path.

Love inspired Shao to forgo her previous path and start a new life with her husband in Taiwan. Love also transformed her from someone without confidence into a woman sure of herself. In her new hometown of Donggang, she is writing the next exciting chapter of her life.

This story was provided by the program "We Are Family"
Funded by New Immigrant Development Fund

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2024-06-26