-Promoting the Implementation of Innovative Healthcare-

In response to diverse clinical needs, NCKU Hospital has clearly positioned its vision for a smart hospital, deeply integrating data governance, AI research and development, and clinical applications to drive the evidence-based transformation of medical services. Through the Clinical Innovation Research Center, the Hospital builds a bridge between medicine, science, and engineering, ensuring that innovative technologies possess both practicality and scalability. In this process, the Hospital’s role extends to becoming a verification and incubation base for innovative technologies. By connecting university and corporate resources, the Hospital bridges the entire link from the R&D end to the market end, thereby transforming clinical innovation into social value with substantial impact, fulfilling its long-term commitment to smart healthcare.

• New Value of Medical Data

Clinical Innovation and R&D Center

The Hospital established the Clinical Innovation Research Center (CIC) in 2020 to serve as a bridge among physicians, data scientists, and engineering personnel. The Center guides developers to start from defining clinical needs, combining AI models, sensor systems, or semantic computing designs to effectively transform Real-World Data (RWD) into applied solutions that feed back into clinical practice sites. Furthermore, it provides referral channels for intellectual property rights and patent consultations, driving medical innovation toward technology commercialization and elevating the Hospital's capacity for smart healthcare R&D and clinical innovation.

To establish a comprehensive clinical innovation governance mechanism, the Hospital approved the establishment of the "Clinical Innovation Committee" through the 390th Hospital Administration Meeting on September 2, 2021. Subsequently, regulations such as the “Directions for the Establishment of the Clinical Innovation Research Committee”, “the Standard Operating Procedures for Medical Record Data Integration Platform Applications,” and “the Standard Operating Procedures for Biomedical Data Analysis Services” were formulated. These establish systems for data governance, authorization management, and information confidentiality. While promoting cross-domain technical exchanges and R&D cooperation, the Hospital simultaneously balances research ethics and personal data protection, gradually perfecting the institutionalized development framework for clinical innovation.

To deepen smart healthcare cooperation with National Cheng Kung University and industry-university-research institutions, the Hospital amended relevant management guidelines through the 439th Hospital Administration Meeting on October 2, 2025. It clearly regulates talent cultivation echelons and project investigator qualifications, incorporating doctoral-level researchers, attending physicians, and Medical staff within the establishment and administrative supervisors with expertise in smart healthcare R&D into the scope of participation to promote cross-specialty joint R&D and technical innovation. Furthermore, it stipulates that industry-university cooperation projects must allocate at least 12.5% as administrative fees, with 15% of that allocation earmarked for injecting into the Clinical Innovation Research Center as development funds for technology transfer, patent portfolios, and university-hospital cooperation. This establishes a sustainable cycle mechanism for R&D resources, continuously strengthening the Hospital's capabilities in smart healthcare innovation, biomedical data application, and translational outcomes.

Furthermore, the Clinical Innovation Research Center also shoulders the missions of research data integration and management, encompassing de-identified electronic medical records, laboratory and procedure records, medical imaging, clinical measurements, and structured research data, and implements data governance and quality control through standardized processes. The Center can also assist development teams with data inventorying, research dataset construction, cross-data source linkage, and analysis environment support, serving as the foundation for model training, verification, and clinical evaluation, thereby lowering the barrier to entry for development teams into clinical data applications.

Clinical Cross-Domain Research Outcomes

The world's first ARNI phase II clinical trial for the prevention of cancer treatment-induced cardiotoxicity (CTRCD), completed through interdisciplinary collaboration among the Department of Cardiology, the Department of Oncology, and the Department of Breast Surgery, has presented its findings at the 2024 European Society of Cardiology Annual Meeting and will be published in the European Journal of Heart Failure in 2025. This research establishes a new direction for integrated cancer and heart care and demonstrates the medical strength of interdisciplinary integration and intelligent innovation.

Furthermore, the Hospital participated in the 2025 Healthcare+ Expo Taiwan. Centered on the core theme of "Smart Safeguarding, Tangible Care," the Hospital integrated clinical practice, informatics, education, long-term care, biomedical engineering, and innovative R&D to launch 4 major exhibition zones and 13 key achievements. This comprehensively demonstrated the multifaceted applications of smart healthcare in patient care, training, precision treatment, and hospital governance.

AI Impact Research Center

With the global wave of big data sweeping the world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the core driving force of medical transformation. Actively responding to national policies, NCKU Hospital has officially established the "AI Impact Research Center" in accordance with the Ministry of Health and Welfare's "Next-Generation Digital Healthcare Platform" project. To expand its impact, the Hospital has further united multiple medical institutions to form a "Cross-Hospital Management Committee," dedicating itself to promoting the R&D and clinical translation of AI medical devices, and shouldering the critical mission of connecting the Southern Taiwan AI ecosystem with National Health Insurance (NHI) decision-making.

As a critical hub for AI research in Southern Taiwan, the Center converges cross-disciplinary experts in economics, public health, computer science, and biostatistics. It adopts the international standard SMART on FHIR to ensure data interoperability, and conducts cost-effectiveness and clinical impact assessments of AI tools within a highly privacy-protected verification environment. This rigorous scientific verification system not only provides empirical evidence for smart healthcare but also lays a profound foundation for evaluating the inclusion of AI technologies into National Health Insurance reimbursement in the future.

At the 2025 "Taiwan AI Impact Research Forum," the Hospital demonstrated substantive translation outcomes. Currently, the "AI Abdominal Muscle Imaging Analysis" project guided by the Center has entered the clinical trial phase. By precisely assessing the body composition of gynecological cancer patients, it assists physicians in dynamically adjusting chemotherapy dosages. This innovative application not only significantly reduces drug side effects and elevates patients' quality of life, but also optimizes the allocation of medical resources. From policy responsiveness to clinical practice, NCKU Hospital is safeguarding patient safety with its AI capabilities, achieving the win-win goal of "technological innovation and National Health Insurance sustainability."

As the only selected AI Impact Research Center in Southern Taiwan, NCKU Hospital shoulders the important role of connecting the Southern Taiwan AI ecosystem with National Health Insurance decision-making.

• Medical Technology Achievements

University-Hospital Cooperative Patent and Technology Transfer

NCKU Hospital continuously promotes the university-hospital cooperation and patent technology transfer mechanisms, gradually constructing an integrated architecture composed of the university's technology transfer system, the hospital's clinical innovation platform, and a cross-domain cooperation network. On the university-level side, the National Cheng Kung University Corporate Relations and Technology Transfer Center provides professional support including patent portfolios, technology transfer, industry-university cooperation, and startup incubation. On the hospital-level side, the Clinical Innovation Research Center handles intellectual property consultation, cross-domain cooperation rights coordination, and R&D outcome guidance, while combining medical alliances and clinical research resources to facilitate collaboration among physicians, researchers, and industry partners.

Through the integration of university-hospital resources and institutionalized support, the Hospital continuously drives clinical-need-oriented innovative R&D outcomes, gradually implementing them in patent portfolios, technology transfer, and application promotion, thereby strengthening the substantive benefits of medical innovation and elevating the medical center's impact in clinical innovation and industry-university cooperation.

Pioneering Precision Prevention

NCKU Hospital, in cross-domain R&D collaboration with the main campus of National Cheng Kung University, developed the "Can Well Being" AI software, which won the "Precision Prevention Award" at the 2025 AI Medical Pioneer Awards. The system has acquired multi-national patents; its core technology lies in utilizing AI deep learning to analyze abdominal computed tomography (CT) images, requiring only 3 seconds to precisely assess muscle density, mass, and fat distribution.

Research indicates that muscle quality is closely associated with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer prognoses. In addition to assisting cancer treatments, this system further extends to chronic disease prediction, helping medical teams detect physiological changes early and formulate personalized management plans. By integrating treatment strategies with AI technology, NCKU Hospital shifts healthcare from "passive treatment" to "proactive prevention," substantively implementing precision medicine and holistic health safeguarding.