Tri-Service General Hospital (TSGH) established the AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) Center in 2019 and has since then dedicated itself to applying AI technologies in assisting medical doctors’ clinical diagnoses and facilitating medical treatments for patients under their care. TSGH has at present successfully developed AI-enable chest X-ray interpreting algorithm, fundus image interpreting algorithm, and ECG automatic interpreting algorithm. Among these algorithms, the automatic ECG interpreting algorithm is the most mature and reliable system, interpreting results derived from the AI-enabled automatic ECG interpreting algorithm may be used to assist physicians to determine probable causes of medical conditions experienced by pre-hospital patients while they are transported in an ambulance while on route to ER department of a receiving hospital. With the assistance and facilitation of AI-enabled ECG interpreting technology while patients are still transported in an ambulance, medical doctors can expedite their medical decision making and direct ambulance EMTs to deliver most adequate medical management to patients still in-transport, allowing medical doctors and EMTs to save patients’ life in the pre-hospital golden window period.

Starting from April 30th 2021, TSGH has partnered and cooperated with Fire Departments of both Taipei City and New Taipei City and installed AI-enabled ECG interpreting system onto ambulances operated by the two fire departments. With the assistance of the AI-enabled ECG interpreting system introduced and deployed, EMTs onboard an ambulance can promptly relay results of AI-enabled ECG interpreting to ER physicians of the receiving hospital, allowing medical team of the receiving hospital to be notified as early as possible so as to initiate necessary healthcare service procedures or medical treatment protocols accordingly. The deployed ambulance AI-enabled ECG interpreting system is capable of helping medical teams to significantly shorten the D to B time (door to balloon time), buying critical life-saving time for patients experiencing heart conditions (such as AMI) and substantially increase survival rates and treatment outcomes for those patients. The ambulance onboard AI-enabled ECG interpreting system can further ambulance EMTs who are on duty 24/7 to transmit and relay vital medical information to hospital-based treating doctors in ER department so patients who need emergency catheterization lab procedures can be promptly transported or transferred to hospitals with adequate Cath lab capability, eliminating or reducing the time wasted while patients are transported/transferred among hospitals.

TSGH’s partnership and cooperation with fire departments of both Taipei City and New Taipei City not only help enhance healthcare quality for patients residing in Nangang District, Xizhi District, and Neihu District in both Taipei City and New Taipei City, in the near future the AI-enabled ECG interpreting technology may also be deployed throughout Taiwan Proper and benefit patients throughout Taiwan, especially patients residing in remote areas where healthcare resources are still inadequate.