2017
NYMU Plans the Integration of AI and Digital Medicine
Upon taking office in October 2017, Dr. Hsu-Sung Kuo, then-President of National Yang Ming University (NYMU), envisioned the university’s future development. He actively consulted with experts and scholars across various fields to integrate AI with digital medicine, while also laying the groundwork for establishing a smart healthcare research and development center.
NCTU Establishes the Smart Healthcare Promotion Office
In 2017, Dr. Mau-Chung Chang, then-President of National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), established the “Smart Healthcare Promotion Office.” The office was dedicated to consolidating the capabilities and achievements of various colleges, research centers, and domestic and international partners in the field of smart healthcare, while actively facilitating collaborations with relevant industries.
2018
NYMU Advances the Smart Healthcare R&D Center
Upon taking office in August 2018, Dr. Chen-Huan Chen, Dean of the School of Medicine, deeply contemplated the future direction of NYMU’s medical education. He actively sought and secured support from Mr. Samuel Yin, centering the future development of the School of Medicine around the Smart Healthcare R&D Center—a vision that aligned perfectly with President Kuo’s.
President Kuo subsequently appointed Dr. Jen-Chuen Hsieh, who also assumed the role of Vice President in August 2018, to lead the planning for the Center’s establishment. Vice President Hsieh proactively engaged with experts and scholars both inside and outside the university to map out the integration of AI and healthcare, aiming to establish it as a signature research area for NYMU. To realize this vision, he invited Professor Po-Chao Kuo—then Director of the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Informatics at Taipei Medical University—to join the planning of the “Ten-Year Development and Construction Plan for the NYMU School of Medicine” and begin designing the blueprint for the “Smart Healthcare R&D Center.”
NCTU Secures Construction Permits for Smart Hospital
To align with its mid- to long-term development goals and meet national healthcare demands, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) envisioned a clinically integrated approach to biomedical technology. The university planned the NCTU Boai BioICT Park at its Boai Campus, aiming to drive the growth of Taiwan’s smart healthcare industry through the cluster effect generated by the hospital, university, research centers, and industry partners.
Planning a smart hospital at the Hsinchu Boai Campus served as a critical starting point and a vital collaborative platform for this initiative. Having entered the planning phase in 2015, the project successfully secured its construction permits, receiving approval from the Ministry of Education in 2018 and the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2019. Two NCTU alumni funded the construction and agreed to donate the building’s title to the university upon completion. The establishment and subsequent operation of the hospital will be managed by the Chu-Ming Medical Foundation, a non-profit organization funded and established by NCTU alumni.
2019
Establishment of the NYMU Digital Medicine Center
March 2019: Center Foundation and Core Architecture
In February 2019, Professor Po-Chao Kuo returned to the NYMU School of Medicine to spearhead the center’s official application and design its organizational structure. He extensively consulted with experts and scholars internally and externally to refine the center’s vision. He also invited leading researchers to join as founding members and established designated demonstration sites, alongside a comprehensive talent and site database.
The center’s core blueprint was clearly defined into five key pillars: Research and Development (R&D), Talent Development, Industry-Academia Collaboration, Networking Platforms, and Core Infrastructure Development. Formally named the “Digital Medicine Center,” the initiative received official university approval on March 20, 2019, with Professor Po-Chao Kuo appointed as its inaugural Director.
August 2019: Leadership Expansion and Strategic Vision
In August 2019, Professor Albert C. Yang returned from Harvard Medical School to join the faculty at NYMU’s Institute of Brain Science. Recognized as a Yushan Young Scholar and a practicing clinical psychiatrist, Professor Yang specializes in physiological signal analysis and smart healthcare applications, alongside his clinical practice. Notably, he is the only scholar from Taiwan serving on the editorial board of npj Digital Medicine (a journal under the Nature Portfolio).
Assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Digital Medicine Center in August 2019, Professor Yang collaborated closely with Center Director Professor Po-Chao Kuo and Deputy Director Professor Chun-Ying Wu to map out the center’s strategic R&D and operational direction.
NCTU Restructures to Establish the Smart Healthcare Promotion Center
In 2019, the NCTU Smart Healthcare Promotion Office was officially restructured into the “Smart Healthcare Promotion Center.” The center aimed to consolidate the capabilities and achievements of various colleges, research centers, and partners worldwide. Leveraging pioneering biomedical ICT technologies and the Boai Campus BioICT® platform, the center facilitated industry collaborations, built a biomedical talent development environment tailored to local needs, and catalyzed a smart healthcare cluster effect through its translational capabilities. This initiative drove a brand-new integration of “ICT, Biomedical Engineering, and Clinical Applications,” enhancing the international visibility of advanced R&D in medical technology.
The core mission of the Smart Healthcare Promotion Center was to coordinate internal smart healthcare technologies and promote R&D breakthroughs. By working with the university’s incubation center for startup nurturing and the center for industry accelerator for international networking, the center actively matched these technologies with healthcare institutions and enterprises globally, aiming to translate research into real-world smart healthcare applications.
Under the leadership of Director Chi-Hung Lin, the center established collaborative projects with major medical centers across Taiwan. These initiatives focused on innovations and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, wearable smart medical devices, and high-end medical device technologies, while continuously leveraging big data from imaging, physiology, genomics, and electronic health records to advance precision medicine.
2020
NYMU Center Secures Prestigious Awards and Transitions Leadership
2019 – 2020: Cloud AI Infrastructure and Award-Winning Breakthroughs
Under the leadership of Professor Albert C. Yang, the Digital Medicine Center established the cloud artificial intelligence platform infrastructure, completing the core development of web, computing, and data servers, while recruiting software engineers to implement advanced front-end and back-end technologies.
The team’s signature development, the “Structural Brain Imaging-Based Auxiliary Diagnosis Platform for Psychiatric Disorders,” leverages MRI big data and an innovatively designed explainable deep learning method. This breakthrough garnered both the Future Technology Breakthrough Award and the Best Popularity Award at the 2019 Future Tech Expo hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). The platform achieved further distinction in 2020 by winning the prestigious National Innovation Award. Additionally, Professor Yang consolidated the brain medicine team to secure funding from a major MOST Clinical Database AI Project, deeply anchoring artificial intelligence applications in brain medicine.
December 2020: Leadership Transition and Inter-Institutional Collaboration
In December 2020, Professor Po-Chao Kuo was seconded to Taoyuan Psychiatric Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare, to serve as the Director of its Clinical Research Center. Appointed by President Hsu-Sung Kuo, Professor Albert C. Yang stepped in as the second Director to lead the Digital Medicine Center. In this role, he worked in close alignment with NCTU’s Smart Healthcare Promotion Center to actively advance smart healthcare initiatives.
NCTU Establishes the Smart Healthcare Simulation Ward
In 2020, Professor Chi-Hung Lin established a simulation ward on the 10th floor of the Pioneering Multidisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Building at the Hsinchu Boai Campus. This initiative was part of the strategic planning for the upcoming smart hospital, reshaping the space to provide a real-world testing ground for medical devices and technologies currently in development, ensuring they precisely align with clinical needs.
Serving as a demonstration site for smart healthcare, the primary goal of the simulation ward is to construct a comprehensive Healthcare Information System (HIS). This system facilitates data uploading, storage, and cross-platform integration, allowing smart medical innovations to undergo rigorous testing on-site before seamlessly interfacing with actual hospital systems.
The hardware infrastructure of the simulation ward is designed with modular flexibility for easy mobility and reassembly. It features custom layouts replicating waiting rooms, outpatient clinics, patient rooms, operating theaters, and dialysis units. By providing an open platform, the simulation ward effectively matches tech vendors with startup teams, driving cross-disciplinary integration, unlocking commercial opportunities, and forging strategic alliances to secure entry into the smart healthcare market and distribution channels.
2021
NYCU Merges to Establish the Digital Medicine Center
February 2021: The Historic University Merger
On February 1, 2021, National Yang Ming University and National Chiao Tung University officially merged to form the newly established National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU).
March 2021: Institutional Consolidation and Strategic Directions
Effective March 1, 2021, Professor Albert C. Yang assumed the concurrent role of Director of the Smart Healthcare Promotion Center on the Chiao Tung Campus. He spearheaded the consolidation of the Digital Medicine Center (Yang Ming Campus) and the Smart Healthcare Promotion Center (Chiao Tung Campus) into a unified entity: the “Digital Medicine Center.”
This consolidated center integrates the clinical excellence of the Yang Ming Campus with the pioneering electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) R&D capabilities of the Chiao Tung Campus. Moving forward, the center has charted four primary strategic directions for smart healthcare development: Patient Safety, Cloud AI, Smart Sensing, and Ethical & Regulatory Frameworks, with the ultimate goal of establishing a globally leading R&D center for smart healthcare.
