
Taiwan Medical Association holds int’l symposium on transforming healthcare
The Taiwan Medical Association and the World Medical Association held the International Symposium on Transforming Healthcare on Dec. 4. In attendance were Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, WMA President Jacqueline Kitulu, Council Chair Jack Resneck, Jr., and Secretary General Otmar Kloiber. FTV reporter Stephany Yang has the details.
President Lai Ching-te presented medal of honor to the Secretary-General of the World Medical Association’s Otmar Kloiber. In 2021, the World Medical Association formally passed a resolution supporting Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly and the World Health Organization. In his opening remarks, President Lai emphasized that building a Healthy Taiwan stands as one of the country’s key policy priorities.
Lai Ching-te
Taiwan President
Our policies aim to keep Taiwanese healthcare current and our people healthy. First, we initiated a healthcare policy transformation, using digital technology and AI to build a smart health system for all ages and settings, offering early warnings and timely intervention. This will help Taiwan shift from a healthcare model focused on disease treatment, to one focused on prevention and health promotion. The era of AI is here, so we are also leading 10 new AI infrastructure initiatives. With enhanced AI, cybersecurity, and data governance, we are establishing a national cybersecurity system for healthcare.
Otmar Kloiber
WMA Secretary General
Taiwan has been a leader in developing universal health coverage over the past decade. Within this system, it has also been very strong to develop family practice primary care. This is something that is missing in many parts of this world. Yet primary care and the role of family physicians is crucial to have very effective healthcare systems to steer and navigate patients through the healthcare system. That is still something that most of the healthcare systems still have to develop and can learn from Taiwan.
This year’s international symposium focused on topics such as transforming health care, universal health coverage, AI, green healthcare, and collaborative healthcare systems. Over a hundred Taiwanese and international experts gave speeches and participated in discussions.
Dr. Jacqueline Kitulu
WMA President
With a population of more than 23 million people, Taiwan sits at a critical nexus in regional and global health surveillance. Excluding Taiwan from formal participation in WHO technical meetings and the World Health Assembly creates an avoidable blind spot at a time when the world must be strengthening, and not weakening cooperation.
Dr. Jack Resneck
Council Chair
When I think about transforming healthcare, getting back to basics, there are a lot of core building blocks of having a great healthcare system, as Dr. Kitulu is addressing. In some ways, it hasn’t changed even as technology changes. When we think about making sure how our patients in our communities have fantastic access to high-quality healthcare, we need systems in place in countries like Taiwan has, making sure that everybody has insurance or access to doctors and hospitals. We need a workforce and a workforce of other members of the healthcare that is adequately supported. Whether that is in terms of resources or all the things that they need to take great care of their patients.
Chen Hsiang-kuo
Taiwan Medical Association president
First, universal health coverage is not merely a policy. It is a symbol of a nation’s civility and health resilience. Regardless of income, age, place or residence, every individual should have access to affordable, high-quality health services. As the world faces an escalated climate crisis, healthcare systems carry the responsibility of reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainability.
In addition, a meeting was convened to discuss the WMA Declaration of Taipei, which addresses ethical considerations surrounding health databases and biobanks.
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2025-12-05