Taipei Medical University held the “2020 International Medical Forum”
Source: Office of Global Engagement
Published on 2021-04-14
The “2020 International Medical Forum” taking place on August 30, 2020, was jointly organized by Taipei Medical University, the Taipei Medical University Alumni Association, the Taipei Medical University Medical Doctor Association (TMUMDA) and the Civil Doctor Association.
Scholars and researchers, representatives from the industries, and government officials gathered together at TMU to discuss issues including innovative medical care models, Taiwan’s medical and health care provision, and COVID-19 epidemic prevention and treatment.
In his remark, Former Vice President Chien-Jen Chen (陳建仁), and an Academician of the Academia Sinica, coined three Taiwan’s miracles: economic miracles in the 1970s, and political and democratic miracles in the 1990s, and the miracles in 2020 in fighting COVID-19. While the epidemic still prevails, more effort must continue to be put into academic research into development of vaccines and rapid screening reagents, as well as discovery of drugs to treat the disease.
Yen-Hua Huang (黃彥華), TMU’s Dean of the Research and Development pointed out that, statistically, the majority of the subjects in cell therapy clinical trials last year were for cancer, followed by bone and joint diseases, neurological diseases and metabolic diseases. However, with the COVID-19, chest diseases have taken the third place in 2020, a perfect depiction of the level of threat brought about by COVID-19.
International innovative medical care was also believed to be another important development of the future medical community. Yuan-Kun Tu (杜元坤), President of the Taipei Medical University Alumni Association gave a speech on the topic of Innovative Neural Reconstruction Microsurgery in Regenerative Medicine (顯微神經重建再生醫療新創). Dr. Tu stated that the paralysis of the limbs is caused by neural injury. Although it can be treated by performing neural bypass microsurgery, only a handful of surgeons around the world are able to perform this operation. Thus, most patients do not have access to the treatment. Studies ranging from nasal stem cells, Schwann’s cells to Mesenchymal stem cells (Msc) show that if medical products can be extracted and cultured through cell extraction, doctors can easily implant them into the neural damage area of paralyzed patients and enable the severed nerves to reconnect. If such a medical product can be commercialized in the future, the treatment of neural injuries will become simpler and more prevalent, bringing a glimmer of hope to limb paralysis patients worldwide.