Seeing the potential of medical and biotechnology applications, the machinery sector has taken the lead in developing related products to seize business opportunities. Chi Mei Medical Center plans to expand its cooperation with Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd. to develop orthopaedic arthroscopic surgical devices and intravascular therapy simulation.

Chi Mei and Tongtai have worked to address the problem that there are many different types of invasive catheters in the ICU and different sizes of catheters cannot be used together, resulting in nursing staff having to visually inspect or pull the catheter infusion line to align with the right position and horizontal calibration. Tongtai Machine & Tool was therefore recommended by Chi Mei Medical Center's Medical Research team to form a cross-industry alliance, which launched a comprehensive catheter zero-point detector on 16 February. 

Tongtai has been working on 3D printing for a long time and that can be used for orthopaedic surgical instruments and vascular simulation teaching, etc. This cooperation with Chi Mei Medical Center is deemed as a starting point. In the past, the focus was more on the machine itself, but in recent years, people have been talking about smart manufacturing and the Internet of Things, all of which require data for analysis. The medical center has accumulated a lot of data, as well as sensors and impact processing, and there are more and more commonalities between the two sides.

From this year, Chi Mei Medical Centre and Tongtai will further collaborate on the development of orthopaedic arthroscopic surgical devices and intravascular therapy simulation, hoping to create new sparks in the world of new and innovative medical devics, said Chi Mei Medical Centre Superintendent Hung-Jung Lin.