Day 2 of the 2nd ITTP-COVID19 Conference Examines the Role of Health Technology in Handling a Pandemic

Universitas Indonesia (UI), with the Faculty of Public Health as the organizer in collaboration with 26 Universities in Southeast Asia held an international conference on Sunday, August 7 2022. This conference was held for 3 (three) consecutive days and was part of the 2nd International Teleconference on Technology and Policy (ITTP) for Supporting Implementation of COVID-19 Recovery Plan in Southeast Asia (ITTP-COVID19). The second day of the conference discussed the role of health technology, especially in the context of handling a pandemic.

 “The health system in Indonesia needs improvement and the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic has made us aware of the importance of technology in dealing with the pandemic,” said Setiaji, S.T., M.Sc, Head of the Digital Transformation Office of the Indonesian Ministry of Health (Kemenkes), in his keynote speech. Digital health transformation already has a concrete strategy contained in a blueprint. One of the important points is SatuSehat which is a national health big data platform in Indonesia.

The existence of SatuSehat is in line with the plan to share electronic health records in ASEAN which is the topic of the symposium as part of the Policy Group Discussion on the second day. “Since last year, April 2021, we have been trying to start sharing electronic health records. Starting from a webinar on health certificates for traveling in ASEAN to the ITTP-COVID19 forum today,” said Professor from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Prof. Dr-Ing Eko Supriyanto. Of course, there are a number of rules that must be applied so that this sharing plan can work properly without injuring individual privacy. In addition, the role of each stakeholder is needed, from health technical workers to academics. “All of this data sharing will really depend on us. The hope is that we all have the mindset that this will be useful for us, with us, and hopefully not against us,” Raymond Francis R. Sarmiento, M.D., Director of the Philippines’ National Telehealth Center, added.

Another interesting thing that was discussed at this conference was the discussion on the Health Technology Industry for Health Resilience. This material was thoroughly discussed by Prof. Nilo. T. Bugtai, M.Sc., Ph.D., IEEE-EMBS, SME-AME from De La Salle University Manila and Dr. Yudan Whulanza, S.T., M.Sc., from the Universitas Indonesia. It was stated that the health industry was one of the industries that was severely disrupted during the pandemic.

The main issue of product development in the health industry is the need for guidelines for conducting health research in both universities and industry. In ASEAN there are several issues related to the ASEAN Medical Device Directive (AMDD) where only a few countries are able to develop a framework quickly, while several other countries are still lagging behind. To achieve health technology resilience, it is necessary to identify issues for regional products, identify potential markets, and formulate a collaborative framework in ASEAN.

In addition to health technology, tourism health and safety was also discussed, one of the sectors that was also heavily affected by the pandemic, in ASEAN. This material was discussed by Dr. Ede Surya Darmawan, S.K.M., M.D.M., from the Universitas Indonesia and Prof. Dr. Supa Pengpid, M.Sc., Dr.PH., M.B.A., from the ASEAN Institute for Health Development (AIHD), Mahidol University, Thailand.

Tourism and health are two things that are interconnected because there is a risk of disease, especially infectious disease infections in tourism activities. Tourism health can support the creation of healthy cities and ultimately achieve One Health. “Everything is interconnected now, not only human and animal health, but also social health,” said Dr. Surya Darmawan . Prof. Supa then added hands-on practice on the role of public health in supporting health and safety tourism promotion in Thailand. This includes tourism conditions during the COVID-19 Pandemic, strategic plans, prosperous business ideas, and recovery plans.

On the second day of the conference, besides the symposium, there were also art performances and also paper presentations from various track topics chosen by the participants. (BK)