With Taiwan now facing the dual challenge of a super-aged population and steadily declining birth rate, the island’s healthcare professionals are more focused than ever on not only ensuring that patients live longer, but also that they stay healthy as they age.
That was the key message of the 2026 U.S.-Taiwan Patient Care Innovation Forum, jointly hosted by AmCham Taiwan and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). The biennial event, now in its fifth iteration, took place on August 20 at the Regent Taipei. Healthcare professionals, industry leaders, government officials, and others came together to discuss breakthrough medical technologies and treatments, reflecting the spirit of “putting patients first.”
Opening remarks at the forum were delivered by AIT Acting Deputy Director Eric Frater and AmCham Taiwan President Carl Wegner. Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi gave the opening speech.
Lin emphasized Taiwan’s leadership in innovative medical technologies and said the government must use regulation and policy to remove barriers to their development and better align the healthcare system with international standards. She also highlighted efforts to strengthen healthcare resilience amid geopolitical uncertainty and natural disasters, including plans to bolster domestic drug manufacturing and stockpiling and ensure a more secure and stable medical supply chain.
The forum’s first presentation, delivered by National Defense Medical University Department of Surgery Professor Tsai Chien-sung, explored advances in tissue valve technology for surgical heart-valve replacement. Tsai noted that heart disease is Taiwan’s second-leading cause of death and that valvular heart disease becomes increasingly common after age 65.
Taiwan’s diagnosis rate for valvular heart disease remains relatively low compared with Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, while mortality and disease burden are higher, suggesting patients are often diagnosed too late. Tsai also traced the evolution of artificial heart valves, from mechanical models introduced in the 1960s to porcine and, later, bovine tissue valves.
For older patients, doctors generally recommend bioprosthetic tissue valves. While Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) covers lower-cost mechanical and porcine valves, Tsai noted a gap in reimbursement for newer bovine valves and urged the government to address it, arguing that broader coverage would entail relatively modest costs while improving equitable access to advanced treatment.
Next up was Dr. Chao Yin-kai, Deputy Director of the Department of Surgery at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, who discussed advances in precision pulmonary diagnosis. Chao praised Taiwan’s 2022 introduction of the world’s first national lung cancer screening program to include family history as a major risk factor. The program has helped detect more early-stage tumors, including among nonsmokers, who account for up to 80% of Taiwan’s lung cancer patients.
Chao also highlighted his team’s use of robotic-assisted bronchoscopy (RAB) to improve diagnosis of suspicious lung lesions, particularly those in difficult-to-reach locations. Because RAB provides stable robotic control and continuous visualization, specimens can undergo immediate pathological assessment in the operating room. When malignancy is confirmed intraoperatively, surgeons can move straight to definitive resection during the same anesthesia episode. This one-stop pathway reduces unnecessary diagnostic surgeries and repeat anesthesia, lowers complication risk, improves diagnostic yield and resource efficiency, and — critically — shortens time to treatment and overall care pathways.
The third presenter, Taiwan Endourological Association President Dr. Wu Chun-te, spoke about advances in single-port robotic-assisted surgery. He began by extolling the merits of the NHI, which has transformed Taiwan’s healthcare for the better. Doctors no longer worry whether a patient can afford treatment; now, the question they ask is what the best way is to treat them.
This has happened in parallel with developments in surgery, from open, to laparoscopic, to robotic-assisted procedures. Each successive approach has minimized the injury and complications caused by incisions. Chang Gung has already developed a comprehensive program to help each specialty expand the use of this technology, in line with President Lai Ching-te’s Healthy Taiwan initiative, said Dr. Wu.
Dr. Lin Jainn-Jim, vice chief of the Department of Pediatrics and Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, presented next on targeted temperature management for severe pediatric brain injury. He stressed the importance of not only protecting children from death but also neurological sequelae as Taiwan’s birth rate continues to decline. His team uses therapeutic hypothermia to help prevent secondary brain injury while providing other neuroprotective benefits.
Lin emphasized that the treatment is not a magic wand, but rather extends the therapeutic window, buying physicians crucial time to stabilize patients and provide further treatment. Targeted temperature management is no longer an “optional” advanced thera-py, but a fundamental line of defense to safeguard the brain function of children and relieve the burden on families and society.
The final speech was delivered by National Defense Medical University President and Major General Lin Chih-yuan, who presented on cardiac surgery perioperative care innovations and their impact on kidney function and dialysis dependency. Dr. Lin discussed how Cardiac Surgery-Associated Acute Kidney Injury (CSA-AKI), a very common complication that affects up to one-third of patients, can extend post-operative hospitalization by several days and severely increase the need for permanent dialysis. He said that reducing the immune response during surgery is central to reducing CSA-AKI risk and introduced an innovative new filter technology that can significantly reduce CSA-AKI incidence in high-risk patients requiring longer bypass time.
Closing the forum, National Health Insurance Administration Director-General Chen Lian-yu spoke to attendees about the future direction of Taiwan’s NHI. She stressed the need to move beyond a system focused on fee-for-service and toward payment models that champion outcomes, quality, and the overall health of the population. She highlighted new efforts to use NHI data for more precise and proactive care, as well as a range of other support for Taiwan’s healthcare profession.
Chen also noted that the NHI global budget will likely grow by around 5.5% next year, and that an additional NT$60 billion (US$1.9 billion) outlay will help cover services like expanded cancer screening and genomic testing. She concluded that Taiwan must pair broader healthcare funding with greater efficiency, earlier diagnosis and treatment, and closer alignment with international standards. Doing so, she said, would allow Taiwan to maintain a sustainable NHI system as it works to address the challenges of a super-aged society.
The 2026 U.S.-Taiwan Patient Care Innovation Forum was supported by BD, Edwards Lifesciences, Intuitive, Johnson&Johnson, and Vantive.
