The Start of Telehealth in Taiwan

M-care project, which is one of Mobile Taiwan Applications promotion projects (M-Taiwan), is one of the beginning telehealth projects in 2006. I joined the M-care project in Tatung company. At that time, M-care project was an absolutely innovative project in the world. The purpose is to deliver health care into remote country by WiMAX network (Wireless Internet). In order to improve residents’ health in remote areas.



Hualien county was the best choice to run the M-care project. Most of the social resources are concentrated in Hualien City, so most of hospitals and clinics are located in the city. And, there are few hospitals or clinics in countryside. Besides, it is extremely inconvenient going city for Hualian county residents because some geographical barriers are located in Hualian. As a result, the people who have chronic diseases are not easily tracked their conditions. We hoped that the Internet would be capable of delivering health care services in remote areas. For example, the vital signs of users who use the M-care project service could be uploaded to the server of care centers by The Internet. Health service providers could see the users’ physiological condition on the platform, and they could also take care of users’ health by video telephone.

Who Will Buy the BabyBot (Telehealth Device)?

Consumers will not buy the BabyBot without service providers because it is a meaninglessness. So, customers of BabyBot are health care service providers. The National Taiwan University Hospital, who is one of BabyBot’s customers, is worth of telehealth service providers because their business model is innovative. Most important is a few consumers willing to pay they for the telehealth service. First, their consumers are not normal people. Patients who have a cardiovascular disease, a heart failure disease, or a chronic disease are their customers because they need telehealth device to record their vital signs and to send the data to the National Taiwan University Hospital. The medicine staff can monitor the data of patients’ vital signs in the hospital without going to the patients’ house. Moreover, the telehealth package includes a telehealth device and a telehealth service. The National Taiwan University Hospital rents BabyBot to the customers and they provide health care service to the customers. Then, they will charge the total monthly fee. In 2010, they provided only package that included all of BabyBot devices and the total monthly fee was NT5’000. In 2011, they provide five packages. One of the packages includes a sphygmomanometer and a ECG recorder and the total monthly fee is NT3’900. To sum up, health care service providers are the customers of BabyBot.