As the European population ages, is AI in healthcare another opportunity to build a Czech-Taiwan partnership?

To prepare for an aging society, Czechia can expand its technological and economic ties with Taiwan into AI-driven healthcare, another field in which Taiwan has made significant advances. While strengthening its relationship with Czechia, Taiwan can gain access to a hub for collaboration with European healthcare technology stakeholders.

Key takeaways:

Why healthcare? Why Taiwan?

On July 14, the European Commission released its third Demography Report, highlighting that the overall EU population is projected to decline by about 11.7% by 2100, while simultaneously living longer. By 2050, nearly one in three EU citizens will be aged 65 or older. These trends present challenges, including labor shortages and growing pressures on healthcare systems. To support a longevity society, in which people live longer and demand more healthcare, the Commission emphasizes boosting workforce productivity and delivering more efficient healthcare through innovation and AI, which can automate administrative tasks, support clinical decision-making, and expand access to online consultations.

The latest wave of digitalization in healthcare dates back to the global pandemic. As COVID-19 spread globally, the Taiwanese government leveraged its technological capabilities—including disease outbreak detection, vaccine management, and quarantine control—and shared its findings and experience through the “Taiwan can help” campaign. During this time, AI technologies also began to be deployed more widely across Taiwan’s healthcare system. From triage, diagnostics, treatment, and nursing to hospital reimbursement and risk management, AI has since become an integral part of Taiwan’s healthcare system.

Taiwan’s healthcare has been ranked first in the world for eight consecutive years (2018-2025), based on factors such as its professional workforce, equipment, and costs. Innovation in the sector has also flourished. Healthcare has been the leading destination for early-stage investment in Taiwan over the past decade (2015-2024). Total investment reached US$7.4 billion in 2024. By comparison, healthcare investment in the EU totaled US$9.4 billion in 2024, increasing sharply to US$25.2 billion in 2025. Nevertheless, average investment per EU member state in 2025 was no more than US$935 million.

Nearly a decade of state action plans

Taiwan’s development of AI in healthcare started before the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout among healthcare professionals was already a widespread concern. Some entrepreneurs and startups recognized these challenges, identifying market demand and developing various services to address physicians’ needs, from mobile ultrasound scanners and portable electrocardiogram monitors to AI-powered medical imaging diagnostics and vital-sign detectors. However, the pandemic created additional pressures that accelerated healthcare providers’ adoption of AI. When these opportunities emerged, startups were ready to introduce internationally certified, ethically validated, and trial-proven products. Why were they so well prepared?

The reasons are manifold, but the government acted as a critical driving force. In 2018, under the national AI Action Plan, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs launched the AI Pilot Project to subsidize AI research and development (R&D), with healthcare designated as one of its five targeted domains, alongside autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, retail, and manufacturing. Over the past eight years, the program has provided not only funding and practical guidance but also valuable endorsement, helping selected startups secure further resources and attract potential customers. Even teams that reached the pre-selection stage but did not receive funding were able to leverage their participation to attract other investors and, more importantly, potential users.

Most domestic hospitals and healthcare providers in Taiwan have been willing to allow selected AI startups to test and validate their products in clinical settings, which is particularly important for data-driven and healthcare-related technologies. Furthermore, the government has effectively acted as an angel investor, providing funding, guidance, and networking resources without taking equity stakes in participating firms. This has helped attract larger investors, including leading Taiwanese ICT companies such as Quanta Computer, Wistron, and Qisda. For early-stage companies offering healthcare services, stable funding and real-world evidence from trials are essential for survival, which is precisely the support these government programs have provided.

To date, government policy continues to emphasize AI in healthcare, including through the Healthy Taiwan Cultivation Plan (2025-2029), which incentivizes system-wide adoption of AI across the healthcare system.

Pro-innovation facilities and strong ICT foundations

Government policy alone, however, could not have driven the success of Taiwan’s AI healthcare ecosystem. It also required proactive participants, particularly hospitals and domestic ICT providers. Some medical centers in Taiwan have their own development teams responsible for building and maintaining their digital systems, while smaller hospitals and care facilities tend to adopt innovations to improve operational efficiency. Healthcare facilities in Taiwan have embraced new technologies, expressing strong interest in testing startups’ products and sometimes even co-developing new services with them. This provides a crucial environment for startups to collect the real-world evidence required by regulators such as the US Food and Drug Administration and Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, as well as to meet requirements under regulations such as the EU Medical Device Regulation.

The medical field itself is also driving digital transformation, with several startups founded by practicing physicians. AetherAI (2015), founded by a Taiwanese medical doctor who is also a doctoral student in pathology, offers a range of AI solutions in digital pathology. EverFortune.AI  (2018) spun off from Taiwan’s China Medical University, with its founder, chairman, and director all being Taiwanese medical doctors. Its AI products are trained using the database of the university’s affiliated hospital. Medical centers, together with educational institutions, cultivate interdisciplinary professionals working across medicine and technology, while some hospitals function as healthcare innovation accelerators.

At the same time, domestic ICT companies have demonstrated significant interest in healthcare innovation, not only by providing services in this area but also by investing in startups. BenQ (Qisda Group) provides manufacturing, system development, and integrated services across diverse ICT and healthcare sectors, and has invested in startups such as Sunhawk Vision Biotech (2019), DKABio (2021), and Ascendo Biotech (2020). Quanta Computer, a leading notebook manufacturer, provides solutions ranging from computing and manufacturing to telecommunications infrastructure and healthcare through QOCA and has invested in QT Medical (2013), AetherAI and EverFortune.AI. Other companies, including Wistron, ASUS, Foxconn, and Compal Electronics, have also invested in AI healthcare.

The strategy behind these investments is that investing companies can bundle their products (often hardware) with the services of the companies they invest in (usually software and AI) and sell them together. For startups, these partnerships provide both funding and access to larger companies’ distribution channels. In some cases, ICT companies also act as the invested startup’s manufacturer, reflecting a more interdependent partnership.

One example is Biomedica (2016), which provides AI-assisted diagnostic systems and has collaborated with and received investment from Marketech International Corp (MIC). MIC provides facility automation for major semiconductor manufacturers as well as X-ray plates for hospitals. By combining AI software with X-ray plates, existing X-ray machines in healthcare facilities can be upgraded to perform osteoporosis tests, opening a new market for both vendors.

As Taiwan has several ICT vendors with significant international market shares and healthcare facilities continue to embrace digital technologies, the country’s AI healthcare ecosystem is likely to continue expanding.

The status quo of Czech-Taiwan interactions

Healthcare cooperation between Czechia and Taiwan began during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the two sides issued a joint statement on partnership against the virus and donated medical supplies and vaccines to each other. The relationship deepened further in 2023, when Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Czech Ministry of Health signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on further cooperation covering training exchanges, bilateral visits, workshops, and conferences.

In 2025, the partnership expanded to non-profit organizations: the Czech Health Technology Institute partnered with Taiwan’s Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry to launch a €200 million African medical aid procurement program that would source a range of medical equipment from Taiwan for hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa.

Thus far, the two countries have had numerous interactions and projects, but these have largely been government-led and limited to temporary initiatives and one-off projects. Unlike Czech-Taiwan cooperation in semiconductors, AI healthcare has not been emphasized in high-level bilateral engagements, nor has it attracted significant bilateral investment. Because current soft measures, such as intellectual exchange and resource distribution, may take time to translate into tangible partnerships and technology investment, existing projects should be sustained, and the two governments should provide additional incentives and opportunities.

For example, economic or technology agencies could launch grant calls for bilateral R&D cooperation, similar to the one announced by the Czech Technology Agency in May 2026. Educational departments could fund regular exchanges between institutes and universities in the two countries, while deeper, more frequent knowledge-sharing partnerships could spur tangible investment. In addition to Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Czech Ministry of Health, more innovation-focused government agencies could be involved.

Making AI healthcare another working partnership

Under the European Health Data Space Regulation (EHDS) and the Digital Decade Policy Program 2030, the European Commission has placed greater emphasis on healthcare digitalization, offering a range of policy tools, projects, and funding mechanisms. Despite gaps in digitalization provisions and uncertainty around certain aspects of EU AI governance, most member states have adopted national action plans or strategies that align with broader EU priorities and funding opportunities.

As most EU countries face growing shortages of healthcare professionals and increasing pressure on healthcare systems, it is imperative that healthcare in Europe undergoes digitalization. Can Czech innovators seize the opportunity to partner with Taiwan, drawing on its expertise and experience to gain a first-mover advantage? Many large Taiwanese manufacturers have already established production lines in Czechia, and some, including Wistron and Foxconn, also produce healthcare equipment and devices, such as AI-powered nursing robots, exoskeleton robots, AI-powered non-contact monitoring systems, and AI screening kits.

Although these healthcare production lines are not yet located in Czechia, production could be established once a sufficiently strong industrial cluster has formed. In 2024, the Czech government established the State Investment and Development Agency (SIRS), aiming to attract high-tech manufacturing and strategic investors. The state company has planned three strategic business parks, one of which, in Cheb, is scheduled to begin construction in 2027 and is designed to accommodate high-value-added sectors, including semiconductors, renewable energy, healthcare technologies, and medical and pharmaceutical products. The foundations for deeper cooperation in high-tech and healthcare technologies are therefore emerging.

For Czechia, expanding cooperation with Taiwan beyond semiconductors into AI healthcare would not only create new business opportunities but also support the digitalization of its healthcare system. Furthermore, it could help Czech industrial sectors upgrade from low-tech to higher-value-added activities. For Taiwan, as it remains important to diversify and strengthen its relationships with other countries, this opportunity could add another layer to its growing technological and economic ties with Czechia.

Although healthcare in the EU remains nationally fragmented, Czechia could serve as a trial, collaboration, and innovation hub for Taiwanese institutes and companies—a credible EU foothold for developing and demonstrating technologies for European healthcare systems.