Tag: Taiwan

National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), the primary teaching hospital of National Taiwan University (NTU) — a leading institution with a comprehensive medical system that includes six affiliated hospitals — has successfully performed Asia’s first “dual long-term ventricular assist device (VAD)” implantation on a 46-year-old patient suffering from end-stage heart failure. After removing the patient’s necrotic left and right ventricles, the surgical team implanted two VAD systems to simulate a total artificial heart, allowing the patient to survive without a native heart. The patient has recovered well and can now eat and walk while waiting for a heart transplant.

The patient had severe heart muscle damage and suffered repeated cardiac arrests despite multiple advanced life-support treatments. NTUH transplant center director Dr. Yi-Hsian Chen explained that heart failure has a higher mortality rate than many cancers, yet treatment options remain limited due to the scarcity of donor hearts in Taiwan. For critically ill patients, innovative support strategies may be the only chance to survive until transplantation.

Because commercially available total artificial hearts are too large for most Asian patients, the NTUH team chose to implant two long-term VADs to fully replace cardiac pumping function. While each device can typically operate for 5–7 years, the patient will still require lifelong anticoagulation and ultimately a heart transplant. NTUH leaders emphasized that the success of this surgically and medically demanding case demonstrates the strength of the hospital’s multidisciplinary advanced circulatory support team—and its commitment to safeguarding every possible life.

National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), the primary teaching hospital of National Taiwan University (NTU) — a leading institution with a comprehensive medical system that includes six affiliated hospitals, officially joined the University Alliance in Talent Education Development (UAiTED) during the CHaMP Service & Technical Exchange Workshop held in Taiwan from October 13–15, 2025. The event brought together representatives from nine healthcare institutions across Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. NTUH’s participation underscores its commitment to international medical collaboration and knowledge exchange.

On the same day, NTUH signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cross-Border High-Quality Medical Service Platform (CHaMP), a regional initiative designed to integrate healthcare resources across Asia. Through the platform, participating institutions aim to share clinical expertise, foster professional development, and provide high-quality, real-time medical services across borders.

NTUH Director Yu Chung-Jen emphasized that joining UAiTED and CHaMP aligns with the hospital’s strategic focus on international cooperation and the government’s New Southbound Policy. Following the signing, delegates toured NTUH’s specialized units and discussed clinical services and healthcare management, laying the groundwork for future collaborative projects that aim to elevate medical standards and patient care across Asia.

At ID Week 2025—the world’s premier infectious disease conference—Professor Chien-Chang Lee and his AI research team from NTU Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine won the IDSA Abstract Award (Committee Choice Award), ranking first among over 3,000 submissions. Their study, which uses artificial intelligence to predict bacterial antibiotic resistance, marks a major milestone for Taiwan’s medical research on the global stage.

Traditionally, diagnosing bacterial resistance takes 72–96 hours, forcing doctors to prescribe antibiotics based on experience, with an error rate of up to 30%. To address this, Prof. Lee’s team developed an AI-powered method integrating clinical data and mass spectrometry, capable of predicting over 80% of bacterial resistance patterns in real time. The system also recommends optimal antibiotic type, dosage, and formulation—greatly improving treatment precision and patient outcomes.

Prof. Lee expressed his gratitude to his team, highlighting assistant Shu-Yu Tsao and medical student Yu-Chun Pan, who presented the study in the U.S. with full conference sponsorship. He also acknowledged collaborators across NTU Hospital branches and leadership support. “This award belongs not only to our team,” Lee said, “but to Taiwan’s growing strength in clinical AI innovation, demonstrating how data-driven medicine can transform infectious disease management worldwide.”

Artificial intelligence chatbots have become increasingly popular in health information access, raising the question of whether they can meaningfully support stroke prevention and care. Stroke remains one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, disproportionately affecting socially disadvantaged populations.

A recent study led by National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Public Health in collaboration with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health evaluated three large language models:ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, across four stages of stroke care: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. Using different prompting methods (Zero-shot Learning, Chain of Thought, and Talking Out Your Thoughts), clinical experts assessed accuracy, hallucinations, specificity, empathy, and actionability, referencing the minimum passing standard of a medical licensing exam. The findings, published in npj Digital Medicine, show that while each prompting method had strengths, overall model performance remained clinically insufficient and inconsistent across scenarios.

The research team emphasized that although generative AI may help alleviate health inequalities and workforce shortages, especially in resource-limited regions, these tools currently fall short of professional medical standards. Safer application will require continued model improvement, stronger user education on effective prompting, rigorous clinical validation, regulation, and oversight by medical professionals.

The National Taiwan University (NTU) Global International Program TRIAD (GIP-TRIAD), founded in 2017 with the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and the University of Bordeaux, France, enables students to rotate through three universities and complete internships abroad. From September to October 2025, an NTU delegation attended the Tsukuba Conference and the tri-university GIP-TRIAD meeting to strengthen international alliances and academic collaboration.

Led by Professor Shen Tang-Long, Chair of NTU’s Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, the delegation engaged with international scholars, industry experts, and the Global Young Academy, while students showcased cross-cultural innovation in the “Global Health and Medical Challenges” competition. Vice President Prof. Shih-Torng Ding highlighted NTU’s commitment to advancing global education and research partnerships.

The delegation then travelled to France, briefing Taiwanese Ambassador Hao Pei-Chih on program progress, meeting with education and science officials, and visiting the University of Bordeaux to hold seminars with faculty and students. As GIP-TRIAD approaches its 10th anniversary in 2026, all three universities plan joint commemorative events, reinforcing NTU’s long-term dedication to cultivating globally minded, interdisciplinary leaders.

On October 29, 2025, the National Taiwan University (NTU) Living Lab Center co-hosted the Smart Aging Technology Innovation Forum with the Ministry of the Interior’s Architecture and Building Research Institute. The forum gathered experts from academia, industry, startups, and care sectors to explore opportunities and future applications of aging-related technologies in residential settings, aiming to bridge the gap between product innovation and real-world adoption.

Speakers emphasized the importance of user-centered design and field validation. Dr. Liu Pei-Ling, Director of the NTU Living Lab Center, highlighted that design thinking helps companies understand market value and integrate products into daily life, ensuring technology evolves from “usable” to “desirable” for older adults. Experts also identified key market challenges, including high deployment costs, privacy concerns, fragmented demand, and policy or regulatory constraints.

The forum concluded with actionable recommendations for industry stakeholders: enhancing cross-domain integration, addressing emotional and usability needs, focusing on “aging in place” solutions, and developing “product-as-service” models. The event showcased Taiwan’s collaborative efforts among academia, government, and industry to advance smart aging technologies and laid out a practical roadmap for future innovation in elderly care.

The College of Liberal Arts Building at National Taiwan University (NTU) won the Award of Excellence in the Mid-Rise Buildings category at the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards in Baltimore on October 27, 2025. This marks the first time a Taiwanese engineering project has been recognized in ACI’s international competition, showcasing NTU’s leadership in combining architecture, engineering, and academic research.

The building, designed by Bio-architecture Formosana and structurally engineered by CECI Engineering Consultants, blends exposed concrete with traditional brickwork to reinterpret the courtyard house (siheyuan) concept. A 50-meter long-span sky bridge over the sunken courtyard highlights both aesthetic innovation and structural ingenuity. High-performance concrete, reinforced shear walls, and careful seismic design improved durability and safety, demonstrating NTU’s commitment to engineering excellence.

Sustainability was integral to the project, including low-carbon concrete mixes, eco-friendly materials, and UHPC sunshades for energy efficiency. The building has also received major domestic awards, including the 2024 Taiwan Architecture Award and the 32nd Chinese Golden Stone Award, solidifying NTU’s reputation for innovative, sustainable, and globally recognized architectural and engineering research.

The 2025 IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference (A-SSCC) took place from November 2–5 in Daejeon, South Korea. Ahead of the conference, the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) Taipei Chapter hosted a press briefing at the National Taiwan University (NTU) Alumni Hall on October 27 to showcase Taiwan’s outstanding research achievements. Industry and academic leaders, including UMC Chairman Lu Chao-Chun, praised Taiwan’s research teams for their global excellence in solid-state circuits.

Taiwan had six papers selected for presentation at A-SSCC 2025, highlighting contributions from National Taiwan University (NTU), National Tsing Hua University, and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. Notably, National Taiwan University’s Professor Chen Hsin-Shu’s team presented an energy-efficient 4th-order delta-sigma ADC design that balances high resolution, medium bandwidth, and low power consumption, while Professor Yang Chia-Hsiang’s team introduced a multi-level runtime reconfigurable array (RTRA) chip capable of switching between 24 programs in under 1 microsecond, ideal for edge computing applications.

Overall, Taiwan continues to lead in AI-on-Chip, ADCs, power management, and analog front-end technologies, demonstrating its strong R&D capabilities and establishing National Taiwan University (NTU) as a key driver of solid-state circuit innovation in Asia.

A research team led by Distinguished Professor Ru-Shi Liu at National Taiwan University (NTU) has published a comprehensive review on near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent materials in the top journal Progress in Materials Science. The study highlights the development of NIR phosphors spanning NIR-I (650–950 nm) to NIR-III (1500–1850 nm), emphasizing structural innovations and energy transfer mechanisms that drive next-generation optical and biomedical applications.

The review underscores the challenges of conventional NIR light sources, such as limited spectral range and bulky design, and demonstrates how NIR phosphor-converted LEDs (pc-LEDs) can achieve wide spectral coverage, high efficiency, and stability. Using a “cube-element model,” the team explains the interplay between host lattices and activators, including transition metals and rare-earth ions, enabling tunable emission, high quantum efficiency, and broad-spectrum NIR luminescence suitable for biomedical imaging, spectroscopy, and portable devices.

Looking forward, the NTU team envisions integrating artificial intelligence and sustainable material design to achieve cross-scale and intelligent NIR phosphor development. Their review provides a panoramic perspective on material theory, photophysical mechanisms, and application potential, laying the foundation for next-generation NIR light sources and advanced optoelectronics.