“Biomedical Island” Plan Kicks Off

　　On April 6, the Executive Yuan announced the start of the “BioMedical Island Plan,” calling for the investment of NT$15 million within five years in the establishment of an integrated bio-pharmaceutical infrastructure and for developing Taiwan into an Asian “genomics research base” and “clinical research center” by taking advantage of Taiwan ‘s strength in the IT industries.

　　The plan was worked out jointly by the Academic Sinica, National Science Council, Department of Health, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and National Health Research Institutes. It encompasses three major elements: a National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII), Taiwanese Disease and Genetic Databank (Bio-Bank), and clinical research system.

　　The NHII primarily involves the establishment of standard formats for electronic medical files and image transmission, and for a common information platform. In the future, the NHII will further support the realization of a community and personal health care system.

　　The main aim of the Bio-Bank is to build up a gene bank covering 1% of the nation’s population, or about 300,000 people, and to coordinate with the follow-up “Biological Information Technology (Bio-IT) Plan” in the utilization of the Bio-Bank for computerized operation, analysis, and reading so as to pinpoint the linkage between the genes and diseases of the Taiwanese people.

　　In addition, with regard to the clinical research portion of the plan, the Department of Health is to promote a benchmarking clinical research center, set up training programs for clinical researchers, and encourage doctors to join in the research. It will also reinforce research in translational medicine—that is, the application of the results of basic research to clinical medicine, or, through the observation of disease and the understanding of pathology, to further seek out corresponding genes.

　　The Executive Yuan forecasts that once the NHII plan is mature it will bring savings of 3% (about NT$10 billion) a year in health insurance spending through such benefits as a reduction in erroneous diagnoses and the digitization of medical records, and that over the next five years it will boost private and public investments by more than NT$40 billion

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