Healthcare+ Expo, Taiwan is an annual event that the medical circle greatly anticipates. This year marks the fifth participation of the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Hospital (hereinafter refers to as the NYCU Hospital). With the theme “NYCU Hospital Leads the Medical Technology in Lanyang to Another Great Leap,” NYCU Hospital exhibited the latest smart medicine, including two feature highlights, namely “Completing Denture within One Day using Digital Dentistry” of the Department of Oral Medicine and the “Research and Development of Sarcopenia Screening Equipment” of the Department of Family Medicine. It is hoped that through pairing advanced medical technology with professional medical skills, we can trigger innovation in medicine of different aspects, remain close to people’s needs, and create more convenient and more thoughtful medical services.
Digital Dental Equipment Completing Denture for Patients in One Day
Director Tu His-Feng of the Department of Oral Medicine stated that the conventional denture production process generally requires 1 to 2 weeks to complete: The dentist must first use impression material in the patient’s mouth to take a dental impression. Subsequently, the dental impression was given to dental technicians to create denture. Next, the denture was sent back to the hospital and to be installed onto the patient. This process is time-consuming for patients to go back and forth to hospital and causing them inconvenience.
NYCU Hospital introduced relevant software and hardware for digital denture production such as the intraoral scanner and digital precision grinding machine. The intraoral scanner is used to convert the images of the patient’s mouth into three-dimensional images. Then the dental technician immediately uses the grinder to customize a denture for the patient. This way, the time of the denture being shipped between the hospital and the dental technology institute is saved. In addition, the dental technician can more effectively conduct real-time communication with the dentist and the patient, eliminating the gap in information in conventional treatments, and rapidly producing ideal denture. This treatment plan can effectively and substantially reduce the number of times the patients go to the hospital and their waiting time. The denture treatment plan can be completed in one day.
Integrated Screening System for Sarcopenia Helps Older-Adult Patients and Prevents Them from Developing Disabilities
Taiwan is estimated to become a superaged society in 2025. When adults reach 40 years old, on average, their muscle mass reduces by 8% every 10 years. After they reaching 70 years old, the reduction rate further increases to 15% every 10 years. Regarding thigh muscle strength, when people reach 40 and 70 years old, it reduces 10–15% and 25–40% every 10 years, respectively. Sarcopenia is one of the common, relevant diseases that subsequently develop. Sarcopenia is the cause of disabilities in older adults. It increases their opportunities to fall and to become fragile, disabled, or bed-ridden, severely affecting the quality of life of older adults. It may even result in their inability to take care of themselves during daily life and increase their risk of death.
Director of the Department of Family Medicine Huang Chun-Feng stated that sarcopenia is commonly assessed manually. NYCU Hospital and Yida Biomedical Co., Ltd. cooperated and researched and developed an integrated screening system for sarcopenia that involved the latest diagnosis standards and assessment steps of sarcopenia in Asia. With older adults as the primary subjects, this screening system adopts the all-in-one conceptual design, integrating the measurement of grip strength, muscle amount, and walking speed, which is conducive to the screening of sarcopenia and in-time intervention, preventing frailty in older adults.
To date, sarcopenia cannot be treated using medicine, and exercise and nutrition are the major methods for alleviating sarcopenia. This advanced sarcopenia screening system is paired with muscle training equipment for exercising to regain abilities. The equipment is designed for five body parts, namely upper arms, abdomen, thigh muscles, thighs, and buttock, and it can achieve passive muscle training and strengthen the effectiveness. Clinical results showed that drinking beverages high in protein designed by medical professionals, receiving passive muscle training, and receiving nutrition intervention plans favorably increased older adults’ muscle mass and improved their muscle strength. The objective of healthy aging was achieved through the combination of these three methods.
Medical and health industry is facing an era of development under unprecedented high speed. NYCU Hospital leads the Lanyang medical technology in making the next major advancement, continuing the medical team endeavors toward high-quality medical services.
Chinese version: https://www.nycu.edu.tw/news/2841/