The National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) is a non-profit organization established in 1996 by the Government of Taiwan. The NHRI is an autonomous research organization supervised by the Department of Health, Executive Yuan. It is dedicated to the enhancement of medical and health-related research and to the improvement of health care in this country. In NHRI, there are 10 research divisions and 4 departments (Administration, Intramural Research Affairs, Extramural Research Affairs, and Research Resources). Scientists at the NHRI conduct missionoriented biomedical and health-related research, investigate many aspects of basic science, health policy, clinical study and develop biotechnology and medical engineering. It is our hope that the knowledge, experience, ad facilities at the NHRI will become important resources to the whole nation in understanding, preventing, curing diseases, and will lead to the formulation of evidence-based health policies for decision makers.