The Research Center at NYCU has become a key national think tank, advancing assistive technology and policies to support the physically challenged and elderly. (Photo from ZDunemployed studio)

Building National Level Essential Think Tank

The current director of the Center, Prof. Shwn-Jen Lee, with short, sleek, silver-white hair, was a practicing physical therapist in the U.S. in the 1980s. After finishing her studies, she returned to Taiwan to teach at the College of Medicine of National Yang-Ming University in 1992. She was invited to join the CATR@P in 2001 by the Center’s first director, Professor Cheng-Kung Cheng of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Since taking over the director’s position in 2005, Prof. Lee has devoted almost all her time and efforts to the Center. Today, the CATR@P located in the East Campus of Taipei Veterans General Hospital not only displays more than 700 assistive devices but also provides training and guided tours in assistive technology for students from colleges and universities, as well as domestic and international organizations, and has become an essential think tank for developing and promoting national policies based on its rich research results on policy and regulatory practices.

“I have been operating the Center with my life,” Prof. Lee said with conviction as she looked back. She firmly believes that promoting assistive technology and serving the physically challenged and the disabled elderly is an indispensable infrastructure for society. In 2005, she wrote a white paper on national assistive technology policy; in 2007, she assisted the Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspection, M.O.E.A., ROC in translating the ISO 9999 into Taiwan’s national standard, CNS 1539; in 2008, she was commissioned by the Department of Health to translate the WHO’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) and to develop the ICF welfare need assessment tool. Since 2012, this tool has been widely used in 22 counties and cities across the country to assess the welfare needs of the physically challenged.

In 2007, she led her graduate students to conduct an in-depth investigation into the operation of county and municipal assistive device centers, assisted in developing an evaluation indicator draft for county and municipal assistive device centers based on academic and scientific methodology, facilitated the central government’s service examination trial of county and municipal assistive devices in 2010, and further promoted the implementation of five relevant central regulations in 2012, realizing the legalization of the county and municipal assistive device centers’ services and resources.


Gathering a group of graduate students, Prof. Lee spearheaded efforts to evaluate and standardize county and municipal assistive device centers, culminating in the legalization of their services and resources through central regulations by 2012 (Photo from ZDunemployed studio)

Constructing a Comprehensive Assistive Device Resource Platform and International Exhibition to Showcase Taiwan’s Strength in Assistive Devices

The CATR@P assists the Ministry of Health and Welfare in establishing the data of the “Resource Portal of Assistive Technology,” which integrates professional information on nearly 5,000 types of assistive device products, ranging from small devices such as hearing aids and small magnifiers to big devices such as exoskeletal robots and welfare vehicles, and also incorporates assistive device application and tracking services, serving as a bridge between the government, users, and vendors. The website has been online for 18 years and has accumulated 870 million views. To get closer to the public, the Civet mascot— the “Dr. Assistive Device”— is an anthropomorphic character that promotes using assistive devices in terms of safety, parenting, etc., and other information on subsidies, translating professional knowledge into understandable information. “We are paving the future infrastructure for Taiwan’s society,” said Prof. Lee, the Center director.
 

Assistive Technology for Life (ATLife), launched in 2016, is Taiwan’s leading exhibition on technology care, uniting industry, government, academia, and healthcare. (Photo from ZDunemployed studio)

To break through the echo chamber and let more people understand the importance of technology care, Prof. Lee opened Taiwan’s first large-scale technology care exhibition—”Assistive Technology for Life (ATLife),” in 2016. The exhibition has attracted domestic and international exhibitors and professionals to participate since it moved to the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center in 2018. In 2024, it has returned to the visiting scale of nearly 120,000 visitors, making it the most authoritative exhibition platform for industry, government, universities, research institutes, and medical care institutes in Taiwan.

There have been skeptical voices that investing a lot of resources in holding the exhibition is not worthwhile, but Prof. Lee replied without hesitation, “It is absolutely worth it!” She explained that ATLife not only gathered the latest technologies and products worldwide and provided a platform for professionals to participate in multinational cooperation forums and matchmaking exchange meetings but also meticulously planned ten major long-term care-themed sections and a guidebook on assistive technology to help the public understand and choose the applicable assistive devices, which is unrivaled by other exhibitions. The exhibition also led to the establishment of the “Taiwan Alliance of Technology Industries in Smart Senior Living and Innovative Long-Term Care” to promote the comprehensive development of the long-term care industry. This series of efforts has made the Center one of the few academic institutions that can continue being an organizer of an international and commercial exhibition. “This is not only an exhibition but also a unique achievement of NYCU,” said Prof. Lee proudly.

Promoting Innovative Methods of Commercial Insurance and Assistive Device Coverage

In recent years, Prof. Lee has advocated for “technology care in-kind payment insurance,” such as medical insurance, injury insurance, and long-term care insurance. She believes manufacturers should promote commercial insurance supplementation instead of asking the government to increase welfare subsidies, which is a more promising development path. She explained that, in practice, cash benefits are of limited help to the quality of elderly care, and the price of assistive devices is relatively affordable compared to the cost of human care, so it is essential to actively promote commercial insurance coverage and increase the proportion of government benefits for assistive devices and home modification. She cited the assistive device leasing method of Long-term Care Insurance in Japan as an example. The Japanese government actively assisted enterprises in developing the welfare device leasing method at the initial stage of promoting Long-term Care Insurance. Japan’s method of promoting the circular economy of the assistive device industry is worthy of Taiwan’s reference.

With the implementation of the Long-term Care Plan 3.0 policy, assistive devices have become a core component of elderly care. Looking forward to the future, Prof. Lee is actively promoting the transformation of the Research Center into an incorporated foundation and expects to join hands with NYCU’s interdisciplinary expertise in information and communications technology, engineering, and medicine to lead the application of technology and patents in the assistive device industry, further enhancing the industry’s influence, so that every family in need of assistive devices can find a suitable solution and the elderly life can continue to flourish. This will not only be the achievement of NYCU and the Assistive Device Center but also the glory of humanity behind the progress of assistive device technology.