In this episode of Looking South, Eric Gau chats with Show Chwan Memorial Hospital IRCAD Taiwan Dean Wayne Huang about medical cooperation efforts between Taiwan and New Southbound Policy countries.
Transcript:
Eric Gau: Good morning. I’m Eric Gau, and we’re here at ICRT with another episode of Looking South, where we take an in-depth look at the central government’s New Southbound Policy. Today on the show, we have Dr. Wayne Huang, dean of the IRCAD Taiwan at the Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, to tell us about medical cooperation efforts with New Southbound target countries. Dr. Huang, welcome to the show.
Wayne Huang: Hello Eric. It’s very nice to be invited to be on this show. And just to tell you, I’m a big fan of ICRT and I listen to your show a lot.
Eric: Thank you so much, and thank you for taking the time to join us today.
Wayne: Thank you very much.
Eric: To start us off, could you tell us why is medical cooperation so important in Taiwan’s efforts to establish closer ties with Southeast Asian countries?
Wayne Huang: Well, first, I think because Taiwan is situated right in the middle of the Pacific Rim, and we are very close proximity with all these ASEAN countries. Of course we cannot take ourselves apart from this alliance, especially in the medical field, because when you talk about medicine it’s more of a humanitarian effort, and we need to contribute our part, especially since we are now one of the leading countries, especially in Asia, in the level of health care that we are providing. We are once ranked one of the very top in Asia, and one of the top 3 in the world, by the WHO in a recent ranking. A lot of the ASEAN countries are looking for training opportunities and partners to collaborate. And especially in the fields of infectious disease, because infectious disease is without borders, now with the very frequent air travel, so we need to contribute our part and to help out and to build more collaboration with other Asian countries.
Eric: You mentioned that diseases know no borders now, so are there any diseases or conditions are being given priority in these medical cooperation efforts?
Wayne: First, I think that infectious disease is a very important area. In recent years, we hear of outbreaks like SARS, dengue fever, and Zika virus. That is now crossing every country’s borders very easily, so if we have strong collaboration, strong ties, with all the countries that are infected, we can control and contain the infectious disease quickly and reduce the harm that can be done. And also in other, more prevalent disease in these regions, such as hepatitis B or hepatitis C, then we can contribute our part because we are one of the leading countries in terms of research and medication in this area, and we can provide our expertise. Because I’m a surgeon myself, I think Taiwan is also one of the leading countries in surgical techniques development and research. A lot of the countries in the ASEAN alliance are looking for training opportunities, and we see a great opportunity for Taiwan to contribute in terms of the training we can provide. Otherwise, they are going to the United States, European countries, or Japan or Korea, and they may not have adequate training opportunities provided there, or it may be farther and cost more money to travel and more time to travel, so they are very happy to come to Taiwan to learn new techniques, and we are also very happy to provide, because as you all know, we are progressively being isolated on the international stage, politically, but I think in the medical area, it is very different from politics. Every country is very welcoming, and we will have more opportunities to extend our influence to Asian countries if our medical society as a whole can help other countries.
Eric: Could you give us some details about any cooperation projects that have already been carried out or are currently underway, and how have they benefited Taiwan’s pharmaceutical industry?
Wayne: First, I will mention that our IRCAD training center is one of the largest training centers for surgical skills in Asia, and we have been established for the past 10 years. And over the past 10 years, we have trained over 7000 surgeons, about two thirds are coming from outside of Taiwan, and a majority of these people are coming from ASEAN countries. That is why in this New Southbound Policy, because our government identified six countries and assigned six hospitals, medical centers, to each country. Our hospital has the privilege has the privilege to be responsible for one of them. We have already done a lot in the surgical training area, and so when you mentioned what projects have already been done, I think surgical training is already a major part of what we are doing, and I think other areas are hospital management, health infomatics training programs, and a lot of the other Taiwanese hospitals and medical facilities are already doing a lot in terms of establishing strong ties with local medical societies and surgical societies in Asia, in the field of infectious disease and gastroenterology and many others.
Eric: How have these efforts impacted the lives of people in New Southbound Policy target countries?
Wayne: The impact is very immediate, because we are bringing in new technology that can benefit. Also, a lot of efforts are humanitarian, because in a lot of countries, the gap between poor and rich is very huge, and many people can’t afford the quality of healthcare we are receiving in Taiwan. Hospitals like Tzu-chi and National Taiwan University and so on have done a lot of humanitarian health, medical, or surgical missions in poorer countries in Asia, so this impact is very direct and immediate. Of course, the projects that are going to be established in the near future after our country’s New Southbound Policy will have a bigger impact, because now this is not initiated by our individual hospitals, now it’s going to be a joint effort by all the big medical hospitals in Taiwan and initiated by our government. So it has an official meaning and we can establish a broader collaboration with even the countries’ governments, local governments, so we can form more policy-driven and more wider-impacting projects in the future.
Eric: In the future, what other cooperative projects are being planned already?
Wayne: This project has just been initiated for the past two or three months, so we cannot say what’s already being done. But in the future, we’re all going to be visiting a lot more frequently to the ASEAN countries. Show Chwan ourselves are responsible for the country of Malaysia, so we have already visited Malaysia twice, led by our hospitals and our government officials from Taiwan. We have signed MOUs of collaboration with some of the most prominent hospitals, like the University of Malaysia, and KPJ, one of the largest private hospital chains in Malaysia, and many others. We will form alliances and have training opportunities both in Malaysia and to bringing in medical expertise from Malaysia to help us do training in the ASEAN region. One of the big major goals of the new southbound policy is not just to collaborate on disease prevention and training, but also to increase business opportunities for medical and pharmaceutical industries of Taiwan and those of ASEAN countries like Malaysia to enjoy a bigger market. Because we all know that Taiwan is a very small, very tiny market, and we cannot survive on this market alone and we need to expand. So if we have, through this project, we can form closer ties because the medical, pharmaceutical market, is a more unique one, unlike other businesses, it needs to have really closer ties and closer bonds with hospitals and governments in terms of regulation so our Taiwanese pharmaceutical and medical device companies can easily find suitable partners in local countries.
Eric: We’ve been chatting with Show-Chwan Memorial Hospital Dean Wayne Huang about medical cooperation efforts under the new southbound policy. Dr. Huang, thank you for joining us on the air today.
Wayne: Thank you very much, Eric.
Eric: That’s it for this week’s installment of Looking South. Join us again next week at the same time for another look at Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy. I’m Eric Gau, and thank you for tuning in.