TAIPEI: The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan's leading technology research institute, plans to help 70 percent of Taiwan's 18,000 clinics to adopt electronic medical record keeping within three years, the head of ITRI's cloud-computing research center said Monday.

Chiueh Tzi-cker, the head of ITRI's Cloud Computing Research Center for Mobile Application (CCMA) , said at a seminar that the management of electronic medical records and digital pictures through cloud-computing technology is the center's major focus in developing the cloud computing mobile applications market.

The CCMA, which was jointly established by ITRI and IBM in September, has started working with many of Taiwan's small clinics to set up cloud-computing platforms suitable for developing and using electronic medical records, the ITRI official said.

Chiueh, a former director of the Core Research Group at Symantec, also said the CCMA hopes to launch its self-developed cloud-computing data center and operating system by the end of next year.

The center believes the new system will create new commercial opportunities for Taiwan and boost Taiwan's exports.

The CCMA has 33 employees divided into three teams -hardware equipment, software services, and applications. The center will continue to expand in the near future, Chiueh said, with the number of employees expected to increase to 80 in the first quarter of 2010 and to 150 in 2011.

The center is expected to have a budget of NT$200 million ($6.1 million) in 2010, ITRI said in September.

Cloud computing is a Web-enabled software solution that uses the Internet as a platform for performing tasks on the computer and delivers a range of inter-operable applications.

According to the institute, cloud computing can help a 200-person medical center reduce costs by about 30 percent.

The value of Taiwan's cloud-computing services market is expected to reach NT$5.56 billion this year, up 12.8 percent from last year, and could climb to NT$6.21 billion next year, the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute said in November.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/16/2009 page2)