Currently, more than 80% of healthcare facilities are untouched by digital technologies. However, COVID-19 acted as an impetus for the Government of Indonesia to push forward digital transformation plans across the public sector, including health. In March 2021, the DTO (Digital Transformation Office) at MoH was established focusing on three major aspects: electronic medical records, simplification of health service applications and regulatory support for the health innovation ecosystem. In December 2021, the Digital Transformation Strategy 2021-2024 was launched. However, the resources allocated to implementation of digital health roadmap at sub-national level are unclear. Further, the government has not set up any mechanisms for multi-sectoral dialogue on the implementation of the digital health blueprint that engages youth, women and marginalised groups.

The COVID-19 pandemic not only encouraged innovation from the public sector but also the private sector thrived with over 400 health applications working in Indonesia, all with different standards and operating systems. This is where interoperability becomes imperative to enable different institutions’ platforms, whether private or public, to “talk to each other” to provide quality, effective and efficient health care.

Indonesia’s internet usage is great with 202.6 mil internet users by January 2021, with an increase of 16% from 2020 to 2021. And mobile connection reached 345.5 mil by January 2021 with a over 1.2% increase in the same period. Yet inequalities remain a problem – between the main island of Java to others (West and East region), the gender gap, urban and rural gap and access to remote areas. Therefore, digital literacy among the marginalised communities must be a priority to respond to these gaps.

Digital health is not yet part of the health curriculum in universities, making courses still out of date. Therefore, making digital health an integral narrative in health science academia by including it as a curriculum, starting front the public health faculties and moving toward the entire health science realm of universities.