The biomedical subsidiary of Compal Electronics spent six months planning out the UniCore Animal Hospital, which is cooperating with the NPUST College of Veterinary Medicine to raise the level of veterinary medicine services for pets by using human-calibre medical equipment, including top-end MRI and PET/CT instruments, for animal diagnostics and treatment. Two specialists from the NPUST Department of Veterinary Medicine, assistant professor Lee-Shuan Lin and assistant professor Cheng-Shu Chung, are also working for the hospital, providing pet owners with top quality medical care for their animals.NPUST President Chang-Hsien Tai pointed out that “the pet industry has been experiencing stable growth over the years and NPUST’s Department of Veterinary Medicine has been meeting demand by providing programs which not only focus on professional knowledge acquisition, but also emphasize practical clinical medicine training. Currently, two thirds of all the veterinary medicine businesses in Taiwan have originated from NPUST, demonstrating that our veterinary medicine incubation approach is the gold standard. At this time, we are cooperating with the ICT giant Compal Electronics, to establish the UniCore Animal Hospital and provide professional imaging and diagnostics for animals, while also allowing for closer integration between education and industry.”Ray Chen, the general manager of Compal Electronics and chairman of their bio medicine subsidiary emphasized that “the use of human grade medical equipment at the UniCore Animal Hospital represents an important milestone for the medical treatment of pets. The hospital provides top imaging diagnostic services and employs professional medical personnel from NPUST to analyze the results, effectively determining the causes and accurately providing treatment to extend the lives of the animals. Additionally, by integrating the development capabilities of Compal and by aggressively incorporating an electronic medical record system, in the future, we will be able to contribute to big data analysis for medical treatment of animals, thus helping veterinarians to be more precise with their treatment and assessments.”Asst. Prof. Lee-Shuan, who is director of the imaging division of NPUST Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (獸醫教學醫院) and faculty member of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, overseas the UniCore Animal Hospital’s imaging diagnostics. The hospital’s director of anesthesia and emergency medical treatment is Asst. Prof. Cheng-Shu Chung, a professor from the same faculty who specializes in trauma, rehabilitation, anesthesia and regenerative medicine for small animals. In addition to the services provided by these two professional medical practitioners, the hospital has hired a number of veterinary medicine doctors from the NPUST Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital who specialize in imaging diagnostics and anesthesiology, adding to the reputation of the university’s veterinarians and raising the level of animal medical treatment at the hospital.Currently with low birthrates, fewer people marring and aging populations, the structure of the family is gradually changing – and for more and more couples, pets are filling the role once occupied by children. Thus those involved with this cooperative cross-domain initiative between NPUST and Compal trust that they will be able to bring greater happiness to more pets and their owners around Taiwan.