With a highly developed ICT industry, a large number of technical personnel, and a good quality healthcare system, Taiwan is blessed with the best opportunity to develop precision health. However, it cannot be achieved by the combination of technology and medicine alone, but requires transformation of the overall medical service model, which also means a paradigm shift in laws and rights concepts. 

In Taiwan, a lack of social consensus to push for institutional changes has persisted, and there are two main reasons behind the biggest policy challenge at this stage. The first one is how to establish the consciousness of the civic community in a digital society, in other words, establishing a sense of “social solidarity.” Personal freedom and social equality are often in conflict, and this tension will become more visible as precision health further develops. The other issue is how the government's policy practices unleash digital governance capabilities and establish good public trust. Due to the slow digitization process of public agencies, their policies often lack the future-oriented thinking needed for the digital age. Nevertheless, the upcoming establishment of the “Ministry of Digital Development” should be a great opportunity for Taiwan. With a digitalized government guiding the medical system to integrate with digital technology, it will enable Taiwan's medical services and technology industries to smoothly transform into a new paradigm of precision health.

Precision health, or “personalized healthcare,” is a long-term goal for the development of contemporary medicine. In modern days, the combined application of emerging digital technology and data science helps to achieve this goal, providing chances to establish a new medical service. With a highly developed ICT industry, a large number of technical personnel, and a good quality healthcare system, Taiwan is blessed with the best opportunity to develop precision health. However, it cannot be achieved by the combination of technology and medicine alone, but requires transformation of the overall medical service model, which also means a paradigm shift in laws and rights concepts. Conventionally, the health service model was mainly centered on hospitals. Patients would visit hospitals only when there was a need for medical treatment, and there was no further interaction with the hospital after they were discharged. By contrast, the establishment of a precision health platform hopes to replace the hospital-centered model with a human-centered one. It can include precision prevention, precision diagnosis, precision treatment, and precision care. Assistance from different fields is required for each task, and may take place in various locations other than hospitals and clinics, but the accumulated personalized health data must be effectively connected so that a thorough link can be achieved to establish precision health.

Based on these, the legal sector must first solve issues regarding the transfer and utilization of personal health data, since precision healthcare shall heavily rely on third-party AI cloud computing. Artificial Intelligence and IT are a key strength of Taiwan’s industry, but have rarely been directly involved in health services; therefore, restrictions in personal data protection laws and its roles in the medical law need to be clarified. In fact, legal issues of the subject are gradually being picked up and discussed, so a brief structure of legal obstacles can already be defined. However, the elimination of these obstacles must be based on social consensus, otherwise stagnation will occur and it will not be possible to find the direction for legal reforms. In Taiwan, a lack of social consensus to push for institutional changes has persisted, and there are two main reasons behind the biggest policy challenge at this stage. The first one is how to establish the consciousness of the civic community in a digital society, in other words, establishing a sense of “social solidarity.” There is no doubt that this form of social consciousness requires “social capital” which is a good spirit of social trust, to be willing to sacrifice part of one's rights or freedom in order to push the mechanism of mutual assistance forward. Taking the example of the healthcare sector, overemphasizing personal data autonomy may only protect the freedom of dominant classes, and for removing health inequality and assisting health care of the disadvantaged, there will be a lack of tools for policy analysis due to data fragmentation. Personal freedom and social equality are often in conflict, and this tension will become more visible as precision health further develops. The other issue is how the government's policy practices unleash digital governance capabilities and establish good public trust. Due to the slow digitization process of public agencies, their policies often lack the future-oriented thinking needed for the digital age. Nevertheless, the upcoming establishment of the “Ministry of Digital Development” should be a great opportunity for Taiwan. With a digitalized government guiding medical system to integrate with digital technology, it will enable Taiwan's medical services and technology industries to smoothly transform into a new paradigm of precision health.