Introducing the TMU-Taipei Neuroscience Institute Leadership

The TMU-Taipei Neuroscience Institute located in Shuang Ho Hospital integrates neurological internal medicine and surgery through by uniting 12 expert groups to serve every specialized need.

Shuang Ho, Wanfang and Taipei Medical University hospitals make up the TMU Healthcare System. It serves the greater Taipei area, possessing geographical advantages in terms of multi-hospital integration. As more than a hundred attending physicians serve the TMU system in neuromedical capacities, the institute aims to integrate these specialists for faster discussion and decisions in complex clinical cases; this also facilitates development of neuromedical treatments.

The center has Asia’s first ROSA Spine mechanical robotic surgical assistant for precise navigation in spinal and brain surgeries. This greatly elevates the standard of neurological care in Taiwan and provides patients with the most precise minimally invasive surgical services. The center includes specialized facilities for and experts in neuro-oncology, radiosurgery, cerebrovascular disease, neurorehabilitation, degenerative disease, neuropsychology and cognitive function, epilepsy, vertigo, sleep disorders, headache, neurotraumatology and intensive care, pediatric neurology, pain control, and spinal and peripheral nervous disorders.

The TMU Taipei Neuroscience Institute is headed by Superintendent Yong-Kwang Tu. He is assisted by Deputy Superintendents Yung-Hsiao Chiang, Chaur-Jong Hu and Chien-Min Lin.

Superintendent Yong-Kwang Tu

 Yong-Kwang Tu is a world-renowned neurosurgeon and former surgical director and professor at National Taiwan University’s College of Medicine. He is renowned for his intracranial and cerebrovascular high-flow bypass surgeries, and has carried out hundreds of surgeries with high success rates that have been noted worldwide. He became superintendent on December 1, 2017.

Dr. Tu was the first to introduce challenging neurovascular surgical techniques and skull base brain tumor surgery to Taiwan in the 1980s. He is the founding chairman of the Taiwan Society for Skull Base Surgery and the Taiwan Society for Neurovascular and Interventional Surgery.

On September 16, 2011, he was voted President-elect of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, the first Asian in this position in the organization’s 60-year history, raising Taiwan neuroscience’s standing globally.

Prof. Tu is responsible for integrating neuromedical resources within the TMU medical system. Compared with other disciplines, neuromedicine is a comparatively new field, he said, and information technology developments such as computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have helped it make rapid progress. In other countries, the integration of such medical resources is an important trend, and that is why TMU created the Neuroscience Institute.

Teaching will change for the better as well. Formerly, when residents rotated between different divisions they were taught the same thing multiple times. Since the integration, instructing physicians teach based on themes and fields. This can save teaching time and allow students to learn with less redundancy. The integration will also allow basic and clinical researchers to work together for deeper partnerships.

Deputy Superintendent Yung-Hsiao Chiang

Deputy Superintendent Yung-Hsiao Chiang is a well-known Taiwan neurosurgeon who has served as academic director and clinical director at TMU and its affiliated hospitals since 2007. He has worked in the neuroscience field for over 30 years and became deputy superintendent of the Neuroscience Institute in April.

He has long dedicated his research efforts to brain trauma and tumors as well as spinal, neurovascular and Parkinson’s diseases and neuro-regenerative medicine, contributing much to the neurosurgery and spinal surgery field in Taiwan. He believes that making the correct diagnosis is critical, as one misdiagnosis can lead to a lifetime of suffering, and that physicians continue to carry responsibility until patients are healthy again. Thus he remains calm and patiently listens to patients to understand and make the correct diagnosis. He places emphasis on the doctor-patient relationship, and has published books detailing real-life stories as he accompanies patients through their treatments.

Deputy Superintendent Chaur-Jong Hu

Deputy Superintendent Chaur-Jong Hu also serves as deputy superintendent for research at Shuang Ho Hospital. Professor Hu’s research focuses on clinical and molecular neuroscience, particularly molecular mechanisms and biomarkers in strokes and dementia. He has long received financial support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology, and has set up a TMU molecular neuroscience laboratory while assisting in several multinational and multicenter clinical studies.

In 2017, Professor Hu became director of TMU’s neuroregenerative medicine Ph.D. program. This links the course and the Neuroscience Institute, uniting basic neuroscience and clinical medicine to raise the standard of research.

With the establishment of the Neuroscience Institute in 2017, Professor Hu became deputy superintendent. He will continue to promote neuromedical innovation and interdisciplinary research to enhance the institute’s service, teaching, research and
visibility on the global stage.

Deputy Superintendent Chien-Min Lin

Deputy Superintendent Chien-Min Lin has served as neurosurgery attending physician and director of the surgical intensive care unit (ICU) at Wanfang Hospital and Shaung Ho Hospitals. His activism led to a 2009 award for facilitating and promoting organ donation. Upon becoming neurosurgery director in 2013, he helped develop various minimally invasive, guided and robotic surgical techniques. With the support of the university and the hospital, he initiated Asia’s first ROSA Spine robotic surgical system.

Dr. Lin specializes in minimally invasive spinal surgery as well as brain trauma and various intensive care techniques, and his research focuses on neuron protection and glioma cells in the brain. To enhance translational research, he has set up specialized laboratories that contribute to the overall improvement and development of neurosurgery in the TMU Healthcare System.

Did you know?
The Shuang Ho Hospital neuroscience division is one of the fastest-growing clinical divisions in the TMU Healthcare System. The neuroscience specialist training center was launched the year Shuang Ho opened, and after 10 years of effort it has gained a good reputation within Taiwan. Currently 19 attending physicians serve Shuang Ho Hospital’s neurology division, including specialists in stroke, dementia, sleep medicine, movement disorders, epilepsy, peripheral and autonomic nervous disorders, dizziness and balance disorders. In collaboration with the national policy to improve acute and critical care, Shuang Ho established a stroke center that is among the nation’s top providers of acute stroke treatment with intravenous thrombolysis. Shuang Ho also is among the few hospitals in New Taipei City that can carry out arterial thrombectomy.

In 2015, the Health Promotion Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare funded TMU’s center for dementia. This center’s director was involved in New Taipei City’s health planning, and created Taiwan’s first ward dedicated to dementia patients in collaboration with New Taipei City’s vertical integration policy promoting this care model. This facilitates the best neurological clinical services with diverse and comprehensive training. Deputy Superintendent Hu also leads the TMU College of Medicine neuroscience program. By integrating clinical teaching, research and service for neuroscience at the three hospitals, the neurology division has received support for 17 research projects from the Ministry of Science and Technology in the past three years, helping to build the division’s reputation for innovative neuroscience research.

For interviews or a copy of the paper, contact Office of Global Engagement via global.initiatives@tmu.edu.tw.