Ministry of Health Publishes Indonesia Health Digital Transformation Roadmap 2024

The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) has officially issued a roadmap (The roadmap) contained in the blueprint (blueprint) transformation and digitization of the Indonesian health sector in the period 2021-2024. There are three main agendas that are the priorities of the Ministry, namely integration and development of data systems, service applications, and ecosystems in the field of health technology.healthtech).

At the launch which was held online offline and online Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the transformation of Indonesia's health sector is one of the big tasks given by President Joko Widodo. Therefore, the Ministry of Health must build a platform that connects various data and systems in the health ecosystem in a single unit.

"We want to make a transformation that focus on healthtech, ranging from primary and secondary services, health system resilience, financing systems, to human resources. That way, this transformation will not only [produce] something that is reporting to officials but becomes a service," said Budi.

He considered that, as the owner of the highest position in the health industry, the Ministry of Health wants to provide opportunities for startups and innovators to create innovations that can be utilized by stakeholders.stakeholder), be it hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, government, and startups.

"To build a good platform, there needs to be a blueprint for the health technology ecosystem. The great economic and health crisis in the world has provided an opportunity to do major reforms," he added.

Situations and challenges

On the same occasion, the Chief Digital Transformation Office of the Ministry of Health, Setiaji said that the Covid-19 pandemic was the right momentum for transformation because it brought up systemic problems that needed to be fixed. Among them are challenges in the data system and the imbalance in the ratio of the number of health workers and room capacity to the total population.

Currently, there are hundreds of applications whose data management is still based on individual information. In government, there are more than 400 applications in the health sector, and this number does not include the regional level. This is not to mention the medical records of 270 million Indonesians, which are not yet fully digital-based.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health 2020 noted that the ratio of doctors reached 03,8 per 1.000 population, while the ratio of hospital beds was around 1,2 per 1.000 population in Indonesia.

"We have seen how the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on various things, including changing the way people consult. We must start this transformation and focus on developing platforms and implementing collaborative initiatives with stakeholders. We hope to make Indonesia healthy and create platforms integrated health," he explained.

Priority agenda

The roadmap titled "Indonesian Health Digital Transformation Strategy 2024" contains a number of priority activities that will be carried out in stages and involve many stakeholders (stakeholder).

There are three main transformation agendas that focus on integration and development, namely data systems, service application systems, and ecosystems in health technology.healthtech)

Of the three, the transformation that will be carried out in 2022 is to develop a system big data based integrated electronic health record, integrated health facilities system platform, and expand Telemedicine and implementation regulatory sandbox.

"The Ministry of Health has launched regulatory sandbox as an initial initiative to accelerate the startup industry, including ensuring the security of all platforms developed by innovators according to regulations," he said.

In addition, the Government will also prepare the Indonesia Health Services (IHS) platform which is the umbrella for the integrated health digital ecosystem of the Indonesian people. IHS will provide data connectivity, analysis, and services to integrate various health applications in Indonesia.

According to its designation, IHS will be developed in two types of applications. First, Partner Systems which are intended for health industry players, such as hospitals, health centers, clinics, and laboratories. Second, CitizenHealth or an integrated platform that stores complete personal health data for all Indonesian people.

An example of its use, the public can access personal health reports and get personalized recommendations (electronic personal health records, service and use of drugs, insurance profiles, tracing & testing) via CitizenHealth.

Setiaji also added that the government is also trying tonurse ecosystem healthtech in Indonesia through Health Tech Space. This forum will present a number of programs, namely: launchpad (incubator), creative space, and a business center (accelerator).