This session was opened with an initial explanation and introduction on telemedicine. Telemedicine itself is an act of providing remote healthcare service by a health professional using information and communication technologies, that include diagnostic information exchange, treatment, disease and injury prevention, research and evacuation, and continuous education of healthcare service providers for the benefit of improving the public and individual health. The telemedicine trend itself has started gaining traction these past few years because of the increasing popularity of health consultation startups.

Telemedicine is quite different from other technology trends because of its sensitive nature which requires the user to share information on their personal health condition. Moreover, at that time, Indonesia had no law that regulates how telemedicine service operates. Dr. Yahya then told a story of his team's involvement in drafting the guidelines for the implementation of telemedicine.

"With the ratification of the Ministry of Health Regulation Number 20 Year 2019 we finally have clear guidelines and regulation for the implementation of the telemedicine service," said Dr. Yaya.

According to Dr. Yaya, telemedicine has the potential to solve some health service problems in Indonesia. The inadequacy of healthcare facilities in remote areas often becomes the main problem of unequal access to healthcare services. This is worsened by the low number of specialty doctor per capita in Indonesia which make it even harder to get specialized treatment in remote areas

"Telemedicine is expected to solve some of these challenges. For equal access to healthcare across Indonesia, it should be guaranteed by the government for all Indonesian citizens," said Dr. Yaya.

Telemedicine allows a medical diagnosis to be carried out remotely using a device connected to the internet thus making it faster and more practical. For more urgent cases, telemedicine can help to overcome the lack of specialty doctors in remote areas by facilitating joint treatment between the medical workers that are available and specialty doctors that are connected from another medical facility.

Dr. Yaya then continued his session with an explanation of the government's endeavor in designing a scheme of Assisting and Assisted Hospitals. Assisted Hospital includes Public Health Center and First-Tier Health Facility, Pratama D Class Hospital, and Field Hospital. Assisting Hospital includes Regional, Provincial, and National Reference Hospital. With this scheme, the Assisted hospital will utilize telemedicine technology to provide healthcare services that were unavailable before because of the inadequate technology and the lack of availability of specialty doctors.

Reporter: Favian Aldilla Rachmadi (Civil Engineering, 2019)
Translator: Favian Aldilla R (Civil Engineering, 2019)