Indonesia recognises the advantages of using digital platforms to build better national health resilience. Vice President Ma’ruf Amin explained the digital health service, SatuSehat, can play a role as a prevention, promotion, curation and rehabilitation health platform.
The Vice President believes augmenting health services with digital technology is needed to prevent severe diseases such as heart disease and cancer, which necessitate lengthy and expensive medical treatment. Moreover, the government hopes that better health education will reduce medical costs.
“Digital health transformation can create convenience for the community, as well as positively impact the health economy in Indonesia. In addition, digital technology can help with early detection so that health workers can make immediate treatment efforts. So, hopefully, this can significantly reduce the burden of medical expenses,” he said when attending an international webinar held by the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia (FKM-UI).
The FKM-UI webinar is designed to provide insight and serve as a forum for students, academics, and stakeholders to share practises and knowledge about the opportunities and challenges of implementing an integrated health information service system.
The state must strengthen national health resilience in the health sector to create a healthy Indonesia as a whole. Efforts must be made to provide convenience and economy for all Indonesians. As a result, the Ministry of Health has launched SatuSehat, a health service platform that integrates patient medical resume history from various health facilities. This system is a basis for building a solid digital health ecosystem. Furthermore, its presence will undoubtedly provide patients with convenience and economic value.
Nonetheless, several issues must be addressed when developing a digital health ecosystem. Regulations, human resources, technology, health infrastructure and data security are part of this. To achieve this, the Vice President invited all parties to work together to address the various problems related to Indonesia’s digital health ecosystem development.
He solicited valuable inputs to accelerate the country’s digital health system transformation. The importance of digital leadership in developing policies and launching digital innovation was also vital for a conducive environment. The ability to coordinate collaboration and cooperation among health sector actors is key.
Several countries have made significant initiatives to advance the digitalisation of health services. China has even made strides in health by developing an information system for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The system will work with China’s existing medical and healthcare systems.
The TCM information system will be established by 2025, according to a plan released by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The programme encourages the establishment of smart TCM hospitals across the country and the promotion of online TCM pharmacies and medical services to provide more benefits and convenience to the public. Furthermore, the service will offer inter-hospital patient transfer flexibility, mutual recognition, and lab sharing. In addition, the Chinese government plans to improve TCM hospital examination reports and other services.
TCM is one of Chinese civilisation’s most significant achievements. It’s a medical science that’s been around for thousands of years. Chinese has advanced TCM through research and experience in the fight against various diseases. With its ancient history of absorption and revolution, TCM is regarded not only as a treatment method but also as having had a significant impact on people’s life patterns.
Integrating natural science and humanities has helped improve people’s health. TCM medicines for diseases incorporate a holistic view of harmony, individuality, simplicity, and preventative treatment. Through TCM, the country encourages the Healthy China 2030 initiative focuses on disease prevention and health promotion.
