Heaptalk, Jakarta – The presence of Covid-19 in the world has brought many impacts, especially for the healthcare sectors as the front guard in handling the problems. The health sector is forced to conduct digital transformation to keep up with the rapid alteration. However, according to Anis Fuad, a lecturer and Researcher from the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nurse UGM, several challenges in the adoption of the healthcare digital transformation have emerged.
Fuad, in the sharing session with Cloud Computing Indonesia (3/17/2021), said that as the government focuses on handling the Covid-19 pandemic, the record of other health problems worsens, such as the enhancement of mother’s death, the insufficient of immunization coverage, and the increased of death affected by non-communicable diseases, including heart attack and cancer. The problems are also driven by the public’s fear in attending health facilities during the pandemic. To solve these problems, the government and other related parties have to optimize digital transformation. However, a step towards advanced digitalization is not an easy matter, several serious challenges are insight.
The infrastructure development gap is a challenge that should be encountered. Several hospitals have applied the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) for their medical record, yet the system has not reached the advanced level. AI has perforated the hospital system, despite that the number of its use remains limited. The use of technology also solely was spread in certain cities, such as Jakarta and Yogyakarta. In contrast, many regions in Indonesia are not covered by this technology.
Decentralization conducted by the Government grew segregation that caused regional government only controls and monitors their own system, so as the central government. This action contributed to providing inaccurate data so that the measures that have decided to reduce the number of the Covid-19 transmission are not effective.
“A few months ago, we saw data distinction between the Central Government and local government, this happened because of decentralization. Talking about decentralization, every region only focuses on its own system. At the level of the Central Government, Indonesian Health Ministry also has a different system to other parties, and it is not interoperable yet,” told Fuad.
Fuad also added that an integrated system is critical to determine the further strategy in tackling the pandemic.
“If we discuss Indonesian healthcare, we are not only considering health, but we also need to reduce segregation.” Said Anis Fuad (3/17/2021)
In addition, the regulation about virtual health standards must be approved promptly as the guide for virtual health services. Today, the regulation from the Ministry of Health stated that Telehealth is not recommended in certain conditions. However, by taking into account the Covid-19 transmission, this system becomes the best alternative.
Fuad also mentioned issues regarding the cyberattacks, and stated that building an IT-based system is similar to building a house, a security system is required to guarantee everything inside it. In accordance with the data recorded from National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), since April 2020 more than 88 million cyber attacks have struck out the Government system. Based on these points, the reinforcement of digital defense is urgently needed. In materializing this goal, the Ministry of Health should partner with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics as well as BSSN to block all the threats that pop up. This fact signifies that integration demanded is not only about combining the system but building collaboration between the government and all parties. (WLN)
