ITRI Initiated Remote Home Healthcare Program
In line with the government policy to encourage remote home healthcare, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) launched its "Remote Home Healthcare Program" to consolidate technological resources on information, broadband communication, and wireless communication, with medical science and healthcare. The program's goal is to prototype a remote home healthcare system which will help stimulate a new service industry, or create new business opportunities for local industries. This program can provide good solutions to the pressing issue of curbing the spreading of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the epidemic of the century, by delivering needed care to people at home or under quarantine.
It is predicted that remote home healthcare service industry will attract the participation of a host of companies from different sectors, to name but a few, telecommunications, security, home delivery, and insurance. Not only does the program accord with the government's policy on invigorating domestic economy, but also operates on two major principles ��� strengthen international competitiveness and encourage industry-wide participation.
The Executive Vice President of ITRI, Dr. Robert J. C. Yang, says "Thanks to the advancement in medical technology, today we can live longer than before and as a result, the population is aging. Moreover, as chronic diseases have become more common than before, social demand for healthcare service is rapidly increasing." Nevertheless, today families have very limited capacity in providing proper care for the sick and the elderly. Therefore, the government is keen to launch a long-term nursing system, and to list "remote home healthcare" among the nation-wide development agenda for the 2008 new service industry.
The program is one of the key programs through which ITRI embarks on the knowledge-based service industry. It pools resources from various divisions of ITRI: Computer and Communications Research Laboratories (CCL), Biomedical Engineering Center (BMEC), Center for Measurement Standards (CMS), Energy & Resources Laboratories (ERL), Materials Research Laboratories (MRL), and Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center (IEK). In addition, ITRI will collaborate with locally renowned university hospitals to develop highly reliable diagnostic systems for home healthcare.
The General Director of CCL, Dr. Bao-Shu Paul Lin also pointed out "The development of information and communication technologies will soon benefit the gray-haired population, patients suffering from SARS and chronic diseases, and the handicapped." Moreover, the operation of the remote home healthcare service will be designed to address social need for healthcare by leveraging on advanced technologies of information, communications, and medical diagnosis. It is then possible to conduct certain diagnosis at a nursing home or even private home that previously could only be implemented in hospitals. Through the use of information and medical tools, doctors and patients will no longer be required to be at the same place to carry out medical check-ups. This is a much safer measure for doctors, nurses and patients in terms of SARS prevention.
The "Remote Home Healthcare Program" covers the development of health watch terminal, modualized wearable physical monitoring devices, cardiovascular blood vessel diagnosis and analysis devices, as well as the set-up of test sites. The sites will be located on ITRI's Chung-Hsin and South Taiwan branch campuses and the National Taiwan University Hospital for demonstration purpose. The test site network will be provided with an end-to-end solution that offers an environment for "plug and care" health tests.
The technologies developed in the Program are applicable to medical centers, nursing homes, home healthcare providers, and even ordinary homes. Take the home healthcare diagnosis equipment as an example. In America, such equipment is designed with the functionalities for illness prevention and monitoring at an affordable price so that the general public will be able to monitor their health conditions without leaving their homes. With these devices, medical examination can be conducted more efficiently at home, reducing unnecessary wastage of medical resources.
