As the effects of declining birth rates and increasing life expectancy are felt, our country has officially entered an aging society, with the proportion of elderly people aged 65 and above rising to 16.1% in 2020. The average life expectancy for Taiwanese individuals has also increased to 78.1 years (male) and 84.7 years (female), with an average increase of 2.1 years compared to ten years ago (Health and Welfare Annual Report 2021). With the increasing healthcare demands brought about by an aging population, the challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases, and the rapid integration of biomedical big data and artificial intelligence in healthcare applications, the translation of medical research progress into effective healthcare applications and the diverse integration across systems face new challenges. In recent years, with the flourishing development of precision medicine, the research outcomes of precision medicine have been widely applied to help physicians discover unique disease risks and the most suitable treatments for patients. For instance, the detection of biomarkers within the human body can assist physicians in selecting the optimal tumor treatment plan. Pharmacogenomics is also used to help doctors determine suitable drugs and dosages for patients, while genetic testing can be used to assess specific disease risks (e.g., newborn screening, BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes related to breast cancer, Lynch syndrome). Many emerging fields have emerged under the umbrella of precision medicine, such as health monitoring wearable devices, DNA nanomedicine delivery systems, applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning, cancer immunotherapy, organ-on-a-chip modules, human microbiome, gene editing technology, molecular imaging, membrane protein structural biology, epigenetics, genotype tissue expression, network integration of cellular characteristic gene pools, metabolomics, and value-added applications of big data databases, among others.
With the advancements in 21st-century genetic science, the detection of the entire genome not only has reduced the time required but also significantly lowered the costs. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has also rapidly been developed and applied to optimize treatment combinations in both pre-clinical and clinical trials. With the continuous emergence of updated genomic analysis methods such as gene sequencing, proteomic analysis, and artificial intelligence, the prospect of interpreting the human genome as a blueprint for precision medicine is a foreseeable goal in the near future. Relevant to human health is the presence of trillions of various bacteria in different parts of the human body, such as in the gut or on the skin. Research has revealed that the total number of microbes in the human body far exceeds the number of human cells. In recent years, the exploration of related research has increasingly clarified the significant role that microbes play in human health and disease through the gut-brain axis. Studies have indicated that important health issues affecting the population include chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular, and kidney diseases, which are among the top ten leading causes of death. Early intervention with preventive health behaviors when signs of pre-disease metabolic syndrome appear can effectively reduce the progression of diseases into chronic conditions and decrease the resulting burden on health. Currently, numerous studies have pointed out that the thousands of microbes present in the human gut not only participate in various physiological mechanisms such as nutrient absorption and metabolic processes but also have important correlations with diseases affecting various body parts, including the gut, lungs, brain, skin, and heart, among others.
Therefore, microbiome-related research is an essential part of the development of precision medicine. Many professional groups worldwide, interdisciplinary and cross-team, are actively involved in microbiota, including many fields. For example, traditional microbial experimental techniques, new microbiome next-generation sequencing, multibody massive data processing, animal experiment verification, medical engineering and chip detection technologies, etc. And these related research results are finally applied to patient health care.
In recent years, the concept of precision medicine has gradually been extrapolated to more widely related precision health. In addition to being included in the scope of precision medicine, precision health also consists of applying other methods outside the medical system, such as disease prevention and health promotion activities. At the same time, the general public can carry out activities or measures for themselves or based on public health, such as knowing family medical history, which helps to know the individual's risk of specific diseases and take early prevention and control actions. Now many personal mobile health devices can help track personal health information (nutrition, exercise, blood pressure, pulse, movie time, sleep, etc.) for the public or medical personnel to collect references. Some can also be connected to the cloud system to assist in early warning. Wearable continuous blood glucose monitoring can help patients control insulin concentration. In addition, by using big data to analyze the degree of discussion or news flow on social media, the progress of disease transmission can be estimated. And gene sequence comparison can be used to trace the state of epidemic transmission, the adoption of subsequent supporting control strategies, etc.
Since that the government has successively proposed many programs in recent years."5+2 innovative industry plan" and "six core strategic industry promotion plans", especially focusing on the development of Taiwan's precision health industry, constructing a huge database of genes and health care, and developing precision prevention , diagnosis and treatment care system, develop precision epidemic prevention products and expand international biomedical business opportunities. At the 2022 Executive Yuan Biotechnology Industry Strategy Consultative Committee (BTC) meeting, domestic and foreign experts further proposed that the "Bio-ICT" technology that is healthy for all ages and combines biomedicine and ICT needs to further establish and improve the R&D industry chain to make technological achievements It can truly benefit the whole people. And the whole life cycle of this precise and healthy industry needs to be integrated from health care, prevention, diagnosis, treatment to follow-up care, rehabilitation, etc., in a complete series of cross-industry and cross-field integration such as biomedicine, medical treatment, health, and ICT. Among them, the research and development talents related to precision health are the key to the core competition connecting various professional fields. Strengthen Taiwan's resilient biomedical industry chain, including independent manufacturing and supply of key drugs, medical materials, vaccines, etc., clarify CDMO positioning and strategies; establish a market access mechanism for innovative pharmaceutical products; complete the legal basis for BioData; integrate medical data specifications and construction Accelerate the innovation of medical information systems and conform to international standards; promote the application of Bio-ICT in smart medical care; promote the telemedicine system with information security protection specifications, etc., all of which require medical research talents with a forward-looking vision of health innovation , in order to respond to the challenges and opportunities of future generations of health care and biomedical industry research and development, and actively build Taiwan's superior competitiveness and dominance.