左起為臺北醫學大學生醫加速器執行長-陳兆煒、科技部人工智慧生技醫療創新研究中心副執行長-張丹菁、食藥署品質監督管理組副組長-陳映樺、主持人未來城市頻道總監-陳芳毓、台灣醫材新創醫守科技創辦人-龍安靖進行精采的分享。圖片來源：食藥署

​智慧醫材論壇最終場「產業與智慧醫材菁英跨域對談」，27日在書香花園圓滿落幕，從8月底開始，五場智慧醫材論壇，一路從學界觀點談到政策發展，最終場來到「醫材創業」的主題。
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本次論壇榮幸邀請到台灣學研界的專家——臺北醫學大學生醫加速器執行長陳兆煒，科技部人工智慧生技醫療創新研究中心副執行長張丹菁，以及成功打入美國市場的台灣醫材新創醫守科技創辦人龍安靖，在短短三小時內分享交流研發醫材創業的心路歷程。

針對市場需求，陳兆煒執行長指出，首要任務是瞭解使用者的需要，定義出需解決的問題，藉此幫助團隊找出創業初期市場中尚未滿足的需求（Unmet Need），「經過十年後，就要致力於找到高價值需求True need，才能幫助台灣的生醫市場發展起來。」同時，北醫加速器在做的，就是協助新創團隊在複雜的利害關係中，調整出最合適的經營模式。
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成功進軍美國市場的醫守科技是少數經歷各種加速器培育成長的智慧醫材新創，且團隊第一筆資金即來自美國矽谷。龍安靖創辦人分享，現在醫守科技試圖建立一個小規模發展模式，以爭取美國市場投資或商業機構合作為主，「先在美國吸取經驗、習慣美國客戶需求，待熟悉美國的環境、條件、限制後，再進一步去找國際化資金。」

龍安靖也分享，在美國市場尋找立足點，要注意三點，一是缺乏美國醫療數據，須加入美國大數據平台，才能有效率的開發產品。二是落地深耕有難度，如何證明自身實力，才能吸引大規模的病例公司合作，醫守科技過往發表的論壇期刊即是證明。第三點品牌識別度，在國外市場要建立品牌鑑別度頗具難度，因此對於品牌服務的定位，比起找出競爭者，更應著重在找到合作對象，藉此發揮合作效益的最大化。

醫守科技正是成功發現新問題，在醫院工作大量電子化的情形下，有新問題產生——系統使用不便導致醫師開藥錯誤、帳務計算錯誤等，龍安靖說：「我們透過期刊論文證明我們的方法有效，利用大數據解決電子化趨勢下產生的新問題。」

Ten startups from the Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) will participate in the program's first Global Innovation Pitch Showcase, produced in partnership with Berkeley SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's highly competitive global startup accelerator. Silicon Valley VCs, angel investors and industry professionals will attend the virtual event. Interested investors may register to join the pitch Showcase here.

TTA, funded by Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology, is focused on building a vibrant tech ecosystem of Asian startups. Each year, they select a cohort of up to 30 startups to participate in the TTA Silicon Valley accelerator, with eight of the startups participating with SkyDeck as part of its Global Innovation Partners program. This event marks the first time TTA is producing a pitch showcase with SkyDeck.

"We are proud to connect the outstanding Taiwanese tech talent with the impressive entrepreneurial community of Berkeley SkyDeck," said the TTA Silicon Valley office. "Since 2016, we have brought more than 150 innovators from Taiwan to the U.S. to build strong international relationships and connections and attract investment. And it's noteworthy that most of the startups' businesses stem from academia. To date more than half of these Taiwanese startups have raised money. With the new Showcase, we're thrilled we can share their talents, ideas and innovations on a global stage."

SkyDeck's Global Innovation Partner Program serves as a bridge for global startup teams as they participate in the SkyDeck entrepreneurial ecosystem and bring their ideas to the U.S. market. A limited number of startups from outside the U.S. are selected to participate in the partner program alongside the SkyDeck Batch (cohort) and Pad-13 (incubator) teams.

"Working closely with TTA has been a wonderful experience for all of us," said Caroline Winnett, Executive Director, Berkeley SkyDeck "Not only are the teams from Taiwan getting an immersive learning and networking experience at SkyDeck, they will return home ready to launch and create economic opportunities in their communities. We look forward to helping jumpstart these startups here in the U.S. and then seeing how they grow."
The Aug. 19 Showcase will feature the following startups:
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• AESOP: AESOP aims to reduce medication errors and billing errors, thus enhancing patient safety and optimizing revenue with AI-powered technologies.

The study also found that applying a federated learning approach can further improve accuracy of the model.​

A study has demonstrated the international transferability of a Taiwanese artificial intelligence model for detecting medication errors in EHR systems in the United States.

The study was jointly conducted by Taiwan-based medical AI startup Aesop Technology, Taipei Medical University, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Its results were announced last week in a press release.

WHY IT MATTERS

The "biggest challenge" in data-driven medicine is the successful implementation of data-driven applications in clinical practice from local to global settings without compromising patient safety and privacy, according to Dr Yu-Chuan Jack Li, a professor at Taipei Medical University.

The study, whose findings were published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research - Medical Informatics in January, found "good" transferability of Aesop's machine learning model in the EHR systems of two training schools under Harvard Medical School – Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

A federated learning (FL) approach was applied to the model which enhanced its performance. The said approach is an emerging technique that addresses the issues of isolated data islands and privacy. 

"FL provides the solution by training algorithms collaboratively without exchanging the data itself," Dr Yu-Chuan said. 

"The study has shown that the model trained by federated learning achieves remarkable performance comparable to the other two models trained by individual data sets," Aesop Technology co-founder and CEO Jim Long also said.

Incorporated in Aesop's MedGuard system, the AI medication safety model was trained using the 1.3 billion prescription data set from the National Health Insurance Administration in Taiwan.

In the statement, Aesop said its system can "immediately" provide adaptive suggestions to help doctors better complete their prescriptions. The AI model has since been expanded to eastern and western hospitals in the US.

THE LARGER TREND

Despite the wide adoption and optimisation of EHR systems in US hospitals, those systems still pose risks given varying safety performance, according to a 2020 study by researchers from the University of Utah and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Medical errors are costing the US around $20 billion each year, leading to over 250,000 deaths. These can occur at any stage of the medication process with errors in prescribing happening half of the time.

The use of an AI system in preventing medication errors was already validated as early as 2017 by researchers at Harvard Medical School. In the same year, MedAware, the Israel-based startup which developed the algorithmic system, raised $8 million to scale its AI-powered solutions.

ON THE RECORD

"Reducing medication errors at the source is crucial. However, to help physicians be better informed and make better decisions, they need more accurate suggestions and alerts. This is where machine learning can help to make better decisions and improve patient safety and quality of care," said Dr David W. Bates, Chief of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

​New study paves the way for collaboration on artificial intelligence modelling and medication error reduction globally

Researchers at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Taipei Medical University, and Aesop Technology, a Taiwan-based startup, announced today the results of a new joint study into the international transferability of machine learning (ML) models to detect medication errors. The results were recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research - Medical Informatics.

Working to Reduce Medication Errors

Medication errors are a growing financial and healthcare burden that results in economic costs of around US$ 20 billion and more than 250,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone.

Medication errors can occur during any stage of the medication process, including prescribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring, with errors in prescribing accounting for 50% of the total.

When medicating patients, physicians go through complex decision-making processes to accurately write a prescription. First, they must clearly define the patient's problem and list the therapeutic objective before selecting an appropriate drug therapy based on age, gender, and possible allergies. They must also consider dosing, drug-drug interaction, potential discontinuation of the drug, drug cost, and other therapies — and all of these need to be done instantly and simultaneously.

"Reducing medication errors at the source is crucial. However, to help physicians be better informed and make better decisions, they need more accurate suggestions and alerts. This is where machine learning can help to make better decisions and improve patient safety and quality of care," said Dr. David W. Bates, Chief of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

For technology to assist in solving these problems, it is critical that machine learning understands these variables. For this to be successful, data must be properly collected, organized, and maintained.