A mechanism certifying the quality of cancer diagnosis and treatment has successfully raised Taiwan’s five-year cancer survival rate, according to the Health Promotion Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Launched by the HPA in 2008, the system evaluates medical institutions with 500 or more active cancer cases. To be certified, a hospital must have an interdisciplinary cancer committee that oversees all related affairs, including surgical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology and diagnostic imaging, to provide comprehensive and individualized care.
Following the mechanism’s establishment, the domestic cancer survival rate rose to 62.9 percent from 2018-2022, compared to 51.1 percent from 2006-2010, the HPA added.
Additionally, the MOHW’s National Health Insurance Administration (NHI) released the results of an initiative accelerating the digitization of cancer treatment records Dec. 30 at a news conference in Taipei City. It is hoped that the integration of patient data will enhance treatment efficacy and information transparency, help hospitals provide robust, holistic care, and provide a database for use in drug development, clinical trials and medical research, the ministry said.
In his remarks, MOHW Minister Chiu Tai-yuan said that governmental agencies and medical personnel have been leaving no stone unturned in tackling the public health challenge of cancer. He thanked the NHI for optimizing digital hospital infrastructure as part of efforts to implement a national cancer prevention plan.
In response, NHI Director Shih Chung-liang said that one of the keys to digital transformation is the interoperability of treatment information, which enables data sharing through cloud systems, enabling doctors to make more precise diagnoses and therapeutic plans and improving overall medical quality. (POC-E)
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