In Taiwan, citizens over 65 years old accounted for over 14% of the entire population in 2018, making Taiwan an aged society. When the demand for medical resources and the cost for health care are increasing, the world is aiming at developing digital healthcare to keep medical resources sustainable with good qualities.
Due to changes in economic development, the division of labor in families, social structure, people’s diet, and health conditions of residents, current medical systems are no longer able to afford patients’ increasing demand for medical resources every year. What is taking the spotlight today is the long-term care in households and communities. With the rise of cloud technology, AI intelligence, and big data computing, technologies designed for medical use are prevailing. This progress aims at solving possible difficulties in terms of health monitoring and user interface when Taiwan’s long-term care is gradually integrated with home health care.
If digital technology can be designed for medical use, it is expected to achieve higher efficiency and precision in disease screening, while drug dispensing to patients can be more accurate based on patients’ genetic information and conditions. It is also possible to predict disease development through patients’ physiological data. Foreseeable improvements include medical precision, assisted diagnosis, drug development, medical imaging, health control, disease prediction, etc.
Assisted Devices for Home Health Care
At present, machines and assisted devices used in home health have made considerable progress. One example is the “AAAS” device designed by the assistant professor, Che-Wei Lin and his team from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at National Cheng Kung University. The device converts the energy of the wearer’s heartbeat into an electronic signal to determine whether the wearer’s heart rate is normal and whether there is cardiac arrhythmia. Data collected will be transmitted through the Internet to medical units or family members that are monitoring the wearer’s conditions.
With the assistance of technology, medical care can be more intelligent and user-friendly to benefit all users.
