TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Administration and the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on Monday renewed a three-year cooperation agreement to strengthen health care collaboration, CNA reported.
The institute is one of the world’s major health technology assessment agencies. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, it provides clinical treatment guidelines, evaluates drug costs, and offers health care recommendations to help hospitals improve their operations.
The NHIA said the partnership will strengthen the evaluation and reimbursement system for introducing new medical technologies. It will also improve national payment assessment systems for gene and cell therapies.
The two agencies will also promote the use of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, a health care data exchange standard, to help hospitals and systems share electronic medical records more easily. The NHIA said this will also help Taiwan and the UK share experience in cancer treatment.
The NHIA added that since signing the initial agreement with the institute in May 2023, it has introduced a payment program for new cancer drugs. The measure aims to improve public access to new treatments while maintaining the financial stability of the national health insurance system.
The partnership has helped move forward plans to set up a national health technology assessment center, with related legislation under review in the Legislative Yuan, the NHIA added.
Through the partnership, the NHIA also shared Taiwan’s experience in managing national health insurance data with the UK institute.
The ministry said Taiwan is one of the few countries with a nationwide health insurance system and a database of nearly 70 billion medical and imaging records. It added the data is managed under a legal framework and is used in compliance with cybersecurity regulations to support medical innovation.
