Extending cancer survival rates is one of the government’s key health objectives. To strengthen cancer care, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) has integrated advanced digital tools to enhance cancer management. These initiatives include upgrading cloud-based systems to improve clinical decision support, applying big data analytics and generative AI to interpret unstructured medical reports for identifying and tracking high-risk patients in real time, and expediting review processes to ensure precise reimbursement. Through these comprehensive efforts, the NHIA continues to advance precision cancer care and move closer to fulfilling the vision of a Healthy Taiwan.
To continue comprehensively advancing cancer patient care services, the NHIA held the Cancer Treatment Digital Governance Demonstration Event on December 2. The event covered the digitalization of cancer care and precision care, focusing on cancer treatment quality enhancement strategy and digital governance.
Director General Lian-Yu Chen of the NHIA stated that, digital technology is an essential tool to improve healthcare quality, especially in the field of cancer treatment. Specifically, such tools can effectively compile all clinical data of a patient, allowing the provision of a personalized treatment plan. Meanwhile, innovative technologies not only optimize the quality of care for patients with cancer but also provide treatments with a higher precision, achieving the objective of digital governance. The innovative application of the NHI’s MediCloud System strengthens data interoperability and integration performance efficiency and proactively introduces AI-assisted technologies to improve clinical decision support, helping medical facilities to realize precision treatment. In addition, the NHIA continues to reinforce digital transformation. With the adoption of structured medical record data and the FHIR standards, the NHIA is working hard on promoting smart pre-check mechanism to shorten the waiting time for patients to receive their medications and speed up the treatment process.
The event was structured around three major topics, centering on the digital transformation and precision care of cancer treatment. Topic one, “Strategies for Excellence and Quality Improvement in Cancer Care,” was the center of the event and showcased how the NHIA leverages the power of NHI data, combined with information technology and visualization tools, to comprehensively enhance cancer care quality. Since the establishment of the MediCloud System in 2013, the NHIA has continuously optimized medical journey information. In November 2025, new features were introduced, including graphical displays of lab and examination results, lung cancer screening results, and an AI-powered integrated interface for reviewing imaging reports, further strengthening clinical decision support and enabling more coordinated and comprehensive cancer care. In addition, as part of the hospital benchmark learning session, Linkou Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital and Taichung Veterans General Hospital shared their experiences in integrating patient data via digital platforms to enhance timeliness and precision in cancer care, reducing treatment delay and optimizing resource allocation.
Topic 2, “Holistic Cancer Care: Big Data and AI Application,” focused on realizing cancer early diagnosis and treatment through data empowerment, with the ultimate goal of improving survival rates and identifying critical gaps in the process. The NHIA has employed big data analytics and generative AI to interpret unstructured colonoscopy and pathology reports, successfully identifying high-risk patients requiring immediate follow-up, thereby ensuring seamless continuity from screening and diagnosis to treatment. At the same time, this innovative approach has gained recognition from Professor Han-Mo Chiu of NTU Hospital and Deputy Superintendent Yang-Yuan Chen of Yuanlin Christian Hospital. They both agreed that leveraging NHI’s big data analytics to optimize colorectal cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment processes effectively accelerates diagnosis and enhances treatment efficiency.
Topic 3, “Seamless Patient Information: Building a Digital Transformation Ecosystem,” mainly talked about data standardization and interoperability, such as using FHIR standards and AI-powered technologies to create a connected information chain for the entire patient treatment process, enabling cross-disciplinary and cross-team collaboration. Representatives from various hospitals shared practical experiences regarding the implementation of AI-assisted information systems and standardization processes in their institutions, while exploring the potential of improving treatment quality through data integration.
The NHIA stated that so far, 18 hospitals have adopted the FHIR standards for cancer drug prior authorization applications. According to the statistics of October 2025, applications made with FHIR standards account for a quarter of all applications. At the same time, the NHIA is gradually implementing structured and automated review mechanisms for reimbursement regulations across various types of cancer. By applying clear and executable logic standards, this approach reduces discrepancies in hospital interpretations and ensures the completeness and accuracy of submitted claims.
The NHIA shall continue to expand the scope of digital transformation. Moreover, they are committed to improve the quality of care for patients with care, optimize precision medicine, ensure effective and safe healthcare services for the patients through data, technology, and healthcare professionality.