Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn, has set its sights on the Southeast Asian market for digital health devices.

Speaking with reporters, Chiang Chih-hsiung, head of the iPhone assembler’s B business group, said the company will use the Taiwan market as a launch pad for digital health device development and is planning to test the waters in the Southeast Asian market in 2023 at the earliest.

The news comes on the heels of Foxconn’s agreement with Taiwan Biophotonic Corp. (tBPC) and the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) on the development of a long distance care monitoring platform.

Under that deal, the three partners will work together on the building of a digital healthcare ecosystem in Taiwan.

Foxconn expects to take advantage of its expertise to develop digital healthcare devices and aims to create value-added smart medicare hardware gadgets, Chiang said.

Specifically, the idea is to develop a long distance healthcare monitoring platform by integrating hardware and software as well as the physical and virtual technologies — including Apps interfaces and cloud technology-based applications, to help medical personnel monitor patients from a distance.

Before any moves into Southeast Asia, Foxconn will conduct a clinical test for the remote monitoring platform lasting about one year, Chiang said, adding the new system will still need to be certified by the health authorities in various markets.

Negotiations are also being held with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and several elderly care centers for broader cooperation, in a bid to accelerate the speed at which new devices hit the local market and even enter international markets in the future.

Looking ahead, Chiang said Foxconn will seek further cooperation in developing heartbeat, blood oxygen and blood sugar monitors as well as electrocardiography devices.