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View all search resultsPhysician-scientist: The missing link in Indonesia’s health system
Indonesia’s aspiration for health system sovereignty, particularly in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and precision medicine, remains elusive, partly due to a lack of physician-scientists.
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Doctors perform cardiac surgery to replace the aortic valve and a portion of the aorta, at University of Indonesia Hospital (RSUI), Depok, West Java, on Dec. 18, 2025. (Antara/University of Indonesia Hospital)
T
he number of physicians in Indonesia has continued to rise, with thousands of new doctors graduating each year and entering clinical practice across the archipelago. However, despite this numerical growth, the country still lags behind in biomedical innovation, leadership in clinical research and the generation of evidence-based health policy.
A key contributing factor is the scarcity of physician-scientists, a professional group that remains poorly understood, structurally unsupported and frequently undervalued within the national health ecosystem. This reality echoes a question posed by Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, in 2016: “Why is the Indonesian voice so badly under-represented in the global conversation on health and medical science?”
A practicing physician is primarily oriented toward patient care. Their core responsibilities include diagnosis, treatment, procedural skills and clinical decision-making, guided by existing medical knowledge and clinical guidelines. In Indonesia, most physicians, whether general practitioners or specialists, are trained and incentivized almost exclusively for this role. Clinical productivity, service volume and administrative compliance dominate performance metrics.
In contrast, a physician-scientist occupies a dual yet integrated role: clinician and knowledge producer. Beyond treating patients, physician-scientists systematically investigate disease mechanisms, evaluate clinical interventions, generate original data and translate research findings into improved diagnostics, therapies and policies. Their work bridges the gap between bench, bedside and population health.
The distinction is not about hierarchy or superiority, but about function. Practicing physicians apply knowledge; physician-scientists create, test and refine it.
Historically, many breakthroughs in medicine, from antibiotics to cardiovascular interventions, were driven by clinicians who asked scientific questions rooted in real patient problems. Physician-scientists are uniquely positioned to identify unmet clinical needs, formulate relevant research questions and ensure that discoveries remain clinically meaningful.
In health systems with strong physician-scientist pipelines, research agendas are closely aligned with national disease burdens. Evidence informs guidelines, innovation is locally generated and health policy is less dependent on external data.
