TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Data analytics key in Indonesian healthcare system
Healthcare providers need to recognize that the benefits of a developed digital health market are profound in the ability to empower patients, improve engagement, and make care safer and optimize operations.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Illustration of healthcare. (Shutterstock/Christian Delbert)
P
roviding citizens with good health care is one of the greatest challenges facing governments today. Changing population demographics and the prevalence of chronic disease in developing countries are putting tremendous pressure on healthcare systems around the world.
Contrary to other Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia has a relatively young population, with about half of the country’s inhabitants under 30 years old — and that figure is growing. As a result, the working-age population is expected to reach 68 percent of the population by 2030. This, combined with an expanding middle class, rising incomes and an increase in chronic diseases due to lifestyle changes, will drive demand and spending for healthcare services.
This trend is in step with global spending in the sector, which is projected to increase by 4.1 percent annually in 2017 to 2021. To improve access, affordability and quality of health care for Indonesians, the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) introduced its own universal health insurance program, which has extended coverage to about 84 percent of the population.
One highly promising solution to these challenges is the application of data analytics. Healthcare systems generate extraordinary volumes of data, and it is clear that if this mountain of information can be efficiently mined, the insights revealed could transform the industry — from pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) to providers’ operational management and patient outcomes.
The region is seeing an extraordinary surge in technology adoption, in both the corporate and personal spheres. In 2017, 27 percent of Indonesia’s population accessed the internet from a mobile phone, and that number is expected to increase by 9 percent by 2023. Digital transformation and Industry 4.0 initiatives — including the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artifical Intelligence (AI) — are is also gaining momentum in enterprises across the region.
Technology is already impacting personal attitudes to wellness — people are increasingly taking individual responsibility.
What this means for the Asian healthcare sector is that stakeholders are now at the intersection of a system that finds itself burdened with exploding populations and rising costs at a time when the digital revolution that is reshaping our world. As the demand for healthcare services increases, so do expectations of what they could and should deliver.
