Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital launched the nation's first 24-hour dedicated telemedicine center, the "Smart Healthcare and Telemedicine Care Center," on April 30, 2024. Our vision is to establish ourselves as the national leader in telemedicine, utilizing smart technology to break geographical barriers and provide immediate, professional, and accessible medical care, especially for residents in remote areas, at sea, and overseas. Our core tasks include: establishing and operating a 24/7 telemedicine service platform equipped with high-resolution video equipment and high-speed internet, staffed by emergency physicians around the clock; actively collaborating with remote area health clinics, maritime organizations, and international entities to expand the scope of telemedicine services; and continuously exploring and developing diverse telemedicine application models, such as remote screening, video consultations, and home care, to enhance the accessibility and convenience of medical services.
To achieve these objectives, our center has made significant progress in expanding a variety of telemedicine services. Regarding the expansion of service scope, we are primarily responsible for emergency medical remote consultations for vessels such as China Steel Transportation, and we collaborate with several health clinics in southern and eastern Taiwan to promote the establishment of telemedicine for emergency care in remote areas. We also actively participate in international medical video consultations. For example, in maritime telemedicine, from January to April 2025, we provided 12 consultation services to China Steel Transportation, Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology's "Yu Feng" training ship, National Sun Yat-sen University's "New Ocean Research No. 3" vessel, and Wan Hai Lines. To enhance medical accessibility in remote areas, we provided 67 outpatient consultations through remote health clinics from January to April 2025. Furthermore, to improve the quality of care for specific populations, we promoted the Veterans Affairs Council's Veterans Home emergency telemedicine quality improvement project and the Veterans Care Network, which served 320 cases from January to April 2025. In the development of diverse service models, the at-home acute care service, launched in 2024, served 134 cases from January to April 2025, demonstrating the feasibility and demand for this model. In terms of fulfilling social responsibility, we have established maritime medical consultation partnerships with four institutions, providing services to four remote or mountainous areas, and offering community medical services, with a cumulative service count of 10,889 individual visits (Tianliao, Maolin, Taoyuan, Namasia).
In summary, since its establishment, the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital Smart Healthcare and Telemedicine Care Center has achieved concrete and significant results in expanding the accessibility of medical services, broadening the scope of services, and fulfilling social responsibility, effectively bringing medical resources to previously hard-to-reach populations, and steadily moving towards the vision of becoming a national leader in telemedicine.