Hon Hai aims to use Taiwanese Market as a Launchpad for Digital Healthcare
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co has set its sights on the Southeast Asian market for digital healthcare products, according to a senior business official. The firm has increased its attempts to expand its reach beyond contract manufacturing.
According to Chiang Chih-hsiung, head of the iPhone assembler’s B business group, the firm plans to utilize the Taiwanese market as a launchpad for digital healthcare device development, and is preparing to test the waters in the Southeast Asian market next year at the earliest. Hon Hai had inked a deal with Taiwan Biophotonic Corp. and the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) earlier in the day to build a long-distance healthcare monitoring platform, according to Chiang.
The three partners have agreed to create a digital healthcare ecosystem in Taiwan as part of the deal.
Hon Hai intends to use its expertise in information and communications technology to produce digital healthcare equipment and value-added smart medical devices, according to Chiang. According to him, the company’s vision is to create a long-distance healthcare monitoring platform by combining its hardware and software expertise with the physical and virtual technologies it has mastered, such as app interfaces and cloud-based applications, to assist medical personnel in monitoring patients from afar.
According to ITRI executive vice president Alex Peng, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ development of the Taiwan Integrated Biomedical Industrial Center cleared the ground for tighter relations with Hon Hai and Taiwan Biophotonic.
According to Peng, the three will undertake clinical testing for the monitoring platform at Tucheng Hospital in New Taipei City. Peng also mentioned that talks are underway with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and a number of aged care facilities in order to speed up the time it takes for innovative gadgets to hit the local market and penetrate foreign markets.
Hon Hai will seek further collaboration in the development of heartbeat, blood oxygen, and blood sugar monitors, as well as electrocardiography devices, according to Chiang.
