Building a World Class Cancer Hospital -
NTU and YongLin Healthcare Foundation Signed a Donation and Cooperation Contract

After President of NTU Dr. Si-chen Lee signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with YongLin Healthcare Foundation Mr. Terry Gou on September 4th, 2007, in which Mr. Gou promised to donate a cancer hospital to NTU and to develop bio-medial engineering program, the two parties went one step further to sign an official donation contract on December 19th, 2008, which clearly stated that YongLin Healthcare Foundation Group would cooperate with NTU to construct a cancer hospital, a proton therapy center, and a bio-medical engineering hall at NTU. In addition, future cooperation projects will include a stem cell treatment center.

In order to build a world class cancer treatment center in Taiwan, NTU formed a preparatory team with YongLin Healthcare Foundation, and the team members went all over the world to gather information on the state of the art cancer treatment philosophy, planning and equipment over last year. In addition, the preparatory team also invited the best architectural teams to participate in a design competition, requesting the architects to provide blueprints for the cancer treatment center based on the prevailing practices of cutting edge cancer therapy.

After numerous brainstorming and consensus-building sessions, NTU was finally able to establish a prototype for the planning, philosophy, positioning, and architectural design of the cancer hospital. While planning the cancer hospital, NTU also endeavored to plan the establishment of fundamental clinical cancer research, the R&D for bio-medical engineering, and a preventive / screening platform, all for the purpose of promoting interdisciplinary bio-medical research, making the Kong-kuan campus of NTU become an advanced bio-medical science and technology park.

President Lee pointed out that, in a time of world wide financial crisis and economic austerity, Mr. Terry Gou's generous donation bore tremendous special significance. He also said that in NTU College of Medicine's more than one hundred years' history, building the cancer hospital was by far the most revolutionary change. The University Council has passed a resolution to place the NTU Cancer Hospital on an equal footing with the NTU Hospital, with both hospitals subsumed under the jurisdiction of the NTU College of Medicine. In the future, the cancer hospital will share the bio-medical resources of the University. Under the joint efforts of NTU and the YongLin Healthcare Foundation, NTU will live up to the expectations of the people of Taiwan, and build a cancer hospital that is "best among the Chinese, and first class in the world."

Mr. Terry Gou emphasized that the amount of his donation to NTU could be increased in the future. He thought that the NTU cancer hospital would create a positive effect on the shift of the structure of medical resources in Taiwan, while bringing about innovative researches in cancer prevention and the development of bio-medical industries. The hospital fees would be charged in accordance with those of the inexpensive hospitals for common people, he said.

The special features of the NTU cancer hospital in terms of its structure and management include:

1. Providing patient-centered services:
   The cancer hospital will set up several patient-centered case management teams, providing patients with integrated medical care and services, thus making more effective use of the available resources, while avoiding unnecessary waste and delay.
2. Centering the planning around diseases:
   The planning of the hospital software and hardware will be geared toward the treatment of tumors in specific places of the human body (such as breast cancer, prostate gland cancer, and lung cancer, etc.), breaking free of the past restraints in terms of structure planning which was based on system classification. The individual type of cancer treatment will be coupled with proper medical teams, equipments and procedures to further enhance the professionalism in treatment and care.
3. Establishing an open platform: By virtue of having the best talents and medical technologies, NTU was able to receive the donation on behalf of the people of Taiwan. Therefore, the University will adopt the philosophy of an open platform, providing related equipments and instruments to fellow medical practitioners, so as to benefit more patients, physicians, and researchers.
4. Strengthening international cooperation:
   The NTU cancer hospital will import various kinds of cutting edge cancer diagnostic and treatment technologies, and turn the hospital into a teaching and research center for cancer treatment in Southeast Asia. Through participation in transnational clinical experiments, our patients will be able to receive the newest cancer treatment opportunities in synchronization with the patients in the world's best cancer centers.