RTI Radio Taiwan International 
RTI Radio Taiwan International 
Join host Joey Chou as he dives into socio-economic issues faced by Taiwan, and their broader impact beyond the reefs of this island nation.
The Health Ministry’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA) announced recently that it will lower the age threshold for free annual health checkups to 30 years old starting this month. This change comes as part of an effort to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases through early detection of major risk factors.
Taiwan has been promoting preventive health care services since 1995, initially offering free health checkups every three years for individuals aged 40 to 64 and annually for those aged 65 and up. However, with rising prevalence of risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high blood lipids among younger populations, the HPA is now extending the service to include people aged 30 to 39, with checkups available every five years.
Our guest today is Julia Bergstrom, Senior Editor at Taiwan's Business TOPICS Magazine, run by the American Chamber of Commerce. Lately she’s interviewed a lot of medical experts and written quite a few articles on cardiovascular disease and how advancement in AI or robotics can help. My first question for Julia is why has she been writing so many articles on health.
