Tag: Taipei Medical University

Taipei Medical University (TMU), in collaboration HTC Corporation (HTC), established its Instructional VR Resource Center for Food Safety. Aiming at improving food safety across Taiwan, this Center brings in VR technology and high-quality training content to the University’s food safety education and promotes the digitization of Taiwan’s food processing industry. This collaborative project between TMU and HTC stemmed from their ongoing partnership of talent development of food safety professionals using innovative technology.

TMU established the first College of Nutrition in Taiwan in 2016 and the first School of Food Safety a year later. As the only such establishment in Taiwan, TMU School of Food Safety is dedicated to the training and education of future practitioners and professionals in the modern food industry.

Associate Professor Hui-Ting Yang from the TMU School of Food Safety applies virtual reality to the courses she teaches, which allows future food safety professionals to virtually experience the workflow involved in a number of a work environment.. Take the VR kitchen for instance, training modules includes food materials inspection, food preparation, cooking procedure and food serving. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points can also be incorporated into the observation training, and simulated food serving stress and fires in the kitchen can also be incorporated for contingency response training. Trainees can accumulate a large amount of authentic experience within a short period of time and acquire the skills and abilities necessary to adapt to their workplace. Moreover, this training approach effectively prevents errors and subsequent business losses caused by their lack of familiarity with the operations.

Raymond Pao, Senior Vice President of HTC, said, “The VR scenario simulation training has been implemented in teaching and learning in various types of businesses and schools. Through immersive learning experience, it can simulate real emergencies and reinforce correct contingency response capability in students. Students can also use HTC’s Virti 360 VR platform to easily create their own VR teaching materials. They can quickly produce all kinds of VR content according to their learning syllabus. Through industry-academia collaboration, relevant teaching materials can be imported into the employee training program of domestic smart food factories. Employees can then practice relevant SOP in simulated VR scenarios as and when required to strengthen their learning effectiveness, thus benefitting the domestic food safety industry and talent development.”

Speaking about the collaboration, Professor Yue-Hwa Chen, Director of TMU School of Food Safety, said, “I am very pleased to collaborate with HTC’s VIVE Medical VR Division to build the first Instructional VR Resource Center for Food Safety in Taiwan. We are constantly thinking about how to increase the learning interest and effectiveness of students. The integration with VR technology has given us new ideas in our course designs and how we advise Taiwan’s food processing factories to continuously transform their operation, improve work quality, and enhance staff development with help of technology.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Taipei Medical University shows its presence in international pandemic prevention. The TMU FLYoung International Service Club has launched online services in place of its annual healthcare services to the Kingdom of Cambodia. It will continue to assist with improving local health care and water resources in order to fulfill the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eliminating inequalities in health and education.

Due to the shrinking of medical resources around the world as a result of the pandemic, the situations in disadvantaged and remote villages have worsened. In 2021, TMU FLYoung have successively accumulated masks, forehead thermometers and other supplies to donate to Cambodia to help with pandemic prevention. Since the team is unable to provide medical and health education activities in person, it has instead adopted online courses on “the respiratory system”, “pandemic prevention” and other important pandemic related topics urgently needed by the locals.

Huang Shao-Hua, a fourth-year student of the TMU College of Medicine, is the leader of this service team. He indicated that 2021 summer service is mainly divided into two major targets: the Cambodia-Taiwan Education Program (CTEP) and the Sunshine Classroom. The CTEP mainly trains local seed teachers in English and computer information. As with previous years, the Sunshine Classroom teaches topics such as trauma care and understanding of the digestive system. However, this year, it will also focus on the respiratory system and share Taiwan’s experience in pandemic prevention. It will also include the concept of “isolation”, emphasize not eating or being together with those who are symptomatic, and observing social distancing. These are essential pandemic prevention measures for Cambodia, where the pandemic is worsening.

With 109 student clubs, TMU has one of the most diverse student activity landscape among universities in Taiwan. 15 of these clubs provide services such as free clinics and medical and health education activities in remote villages at home and abroad. Although many clubs are unable to dispatch their service teams because of the pandemic, the students’ passion for service has not diminished. Some clubs have adopted online operations in the hope of doing their part in global pandemic prevention and medical education.

Led by Professor Yi-Hsin Hsu as the Principal Investigator, Taipei Medical University worked with a group of elementary schools to improve students’ understanding of aging and dementia. Asking the students to compile a book on the life stories of their grandparents, the program enhanced the grandparent-grandchild relationship while promoting neuroscience and disseminating current scientific knowledge on dementia, a major neurological brain disease.

Through the partnerships with Ruifang Elementary School and Yifang Elementary School in New Taipei City and Zhongxiao Elementary School in Taipei City, over 200 students and their families participated. A total of 50 students were selected to present their outstanding work at TMU in May 2021.

Principal Chuan-Chuan Lu of Ruifang Elementary School pointed out that the life story book project was very meaningful. In the writing of the storybook, the dialogue with grandparents has enhanced family interaction and deepened relationships.

Dean Li-Juing Wu of the College of Education at the National Taipei University of Education, who participated in the review, said that history is not only found in textbooks; it is also the living history spoken from the mouths of grandparents, and this type of historical exploration is warm and can be touching.

Professor Hsu and associate professor Yang have been teaching the humanities course in TMU since 2014. The course integrated assignment “Life book writing for our grandparents (LB4OG)” where young people write storybooks on the life story of their elders so that the students can develop a deeper understanding of a future aging society. Over the past seven years, 400 books of family history have been created by college students. The publication of innovative assignment was accepted by the international medical education journal, Medical Education (Impact Factor 4.570, Ranking 4.8%).

This project aims to train a group of seed teachers to promote popular medical science and will continue to be jointly rolled out in more schools in the future. It is hoped that these partner elementary schools will integrate this activity into their future curriculum, facilitating the continuous dissemination of medical popular science and health knowledge.

Thomashire Anita George, a third-year Ph.D. student in the College of Biomedical Engineer of Taipei Medical University won The Future Fellowship 2021/2022 Grant for Women in Science offered by the Schlumberger Foundation.

The Schlumberger Foundation is committed to gender equality in science; by providing research scholarships for outstanding female scientists, it strengthens women’s ability and influence in scientific development. Recipients must have excellent academic research and demonstrate that they are committed to returning to their home country after graduation to promote the economic, social and technological development.

Anita is from the Republic of Sierra Leone. She is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces and was an attending physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the military hospital. In addition, she also served as the director of the Department of Microbiology in the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences at the University of Sierra Leone.

Anita came to Taipei Medical University to pursue her studies in order to learn more professional knowledge and improve her skills in biomedical engineering. Her thesis advisor is Professor Thierry Burnouf and her co-advisor is Professor David Lundy. She likes the learning environment in Taipei Medical University and is very grateful to her two advisors for their guidance.

After graduating, she will return to her home country to help establish a national-level medical and health system. With the professional knowledge and skills she has learned at TMU, she will establish an institute of biomedical engineering with University of Sierra Leone to provide a learning environment for students who are committed to biomedical engineering research. She hopes that the institute can cultivate outstanding medical engineering talents, enhancing social and economic development, as well as the national welfare.