Given your professional background and experience in the U.S., what is your role and focus in IMEDIPLUS as its founder?

 

Dr. Peter Kunhsi Tsai: I engage in auscultation, which is comprehensively listening to heart, chest and vessel signals. Auscultation is a primary skill, I’ve been engaged in this field for six years because stethoscopes and computer-aided diagnoses are the specializations of this company, I’m very focused on them. We’re very engaged with our products in critical care medicine.

 

Our target is to provide medical decision support and the use of computer-aided technology, but receiving US FDA medical device clearance is the first step. Because the signal or information you collect is based on medical regulation, you need something that can collect data. We are engaged in acoustic medicine and auscultation, and building tech that incorporates machine learning, materials and algorithms, among others. We also cooperate with our customers, hospital nurses, and revise our product to work out certain solutions, including software system solutions. In the future, our data will be coded with Blockchain, which is part of the “smart country” where everything is transparent. We’ve been building this type of technology in our company for the last 2-3 years; cloud-based intelligent EMR.

 

Voices of Leaders: What is the Wireless ECG?

 

Dr. Peter Kunhsi Tsai: Wireless ECG with Blockchain uses AI to provide computer-aided diagnosis. If you want to get more information, such as GPS, we can provide a 28-channel stethoscope for computer aided diagnosis which simultaneously collects and calculates data. It’s the only one out that there that does that, and it has also received CE approval for Europe. Our solutions have been clinically adopted in Taiwan, they are used in the emergency market, by National Taiwan University, Taipei Fire Department, and the American Heart Association.

 

Voices of Leaders: How important are Taiwan-U.S. relations when it comes to business relations, especially in the medical field?

 

Dr. Peter Kunhsi Tsai: It’s very important that we are friends and partners with the U.S. Marketing, client co-use, and some high payment partner employees are from the U.S. Taiwan is a very efficient R&D center – this is hardware, but software application will be recruited in the U.S. Software developments have been initiated but lots of things will be done in the U.S. because of localization, or because it fits the American or the global market. We will also recruit engineers in the U.S., especially in Silicon Valley. Taiwan and the U.S. are similar in that we are both democratic countries and follow the same medical, educational and legal systems.

 

Voices of Leaders: How do you see this company in the next 3-5 years?

 

Dr. Peter Kunhsi Tsai: We are a service and solutions provider. When you visit the clinic or emergency room, or receive an admission or operation, doctors will use our products to gather all of your heart, lung, vessel and bowel sounds – it only takes one minute. It takes the nurse the same amount of time to use the blood pressure monitor. The doctor or nurse can easily see your data once it’s collected. We are currently prototyping some products and hoping to receive US FDA in the third quarter of 2019.

 

Voices of Leaders: What’s in store for Taiwan’s  future?

Dr. Peter Kunhsi Tsai: Taiwan needs VCs. We have new innovative companies – but we need angels and NGOs who support entrepreneurs who innovate and start companies. If Taiwan wants to be globally competitive, we need to upgrade our language abilities; English is a must-have criteria. We also need capital and set up a welcoming environment to encourage the recruitment of talented professionals. Talent and human capital will determine your company – people are the first step