Indonesia – July 13, 2012 – The current level of IT adoption in Indonesia's healthcare sector is at a nascent stage, with a major focus on investing in medical equipments. However, the eGovernment initiatives to improve the country's global competitiveness include a focus on eHealth, and IDC foresees that it will drive major healthcare IT investments in the next few years. More insights are revealed in IDC Health Insights' latest study, "Health Insights Country Report on Indonesia" (Doc # AP9296305U, July 2012).

"By linking eGovernment to eHealth, which starts with storing health data on electronic identity cards for each citizen, Indonesia has taken a huge step towards healthcare digitization," says Sash Mukherjee, Senior Market Analyst, IDC Health Insights, Asia/Pacific. “Since investments in basic infrastructure are at an early stage, the country has less legacy infrastructure. Therefore, Indonesia will benefit from investments in advanced capabilities like central data repository, health information exchange, and integrated analytics, right from the beginning," she advises.

When it comes to the key business concerns that will drive healthcare IT investments in Indonesia between 2012 – 2013, improving patient satisfaction and financial results emerged as the key concerns among the senior IT executives in the Indonesia healthcare sector (refer to Figure 1).

To bring about an improvement in the standard of healthcare provision, it is important to be able to retain patients within the country, so that they can contribute to the healthcare revenue. Patients however, will continue to seek treatment overseas, till they perceive an improvement in the healthcare services, creating a vicious cycle of sorts. This is an area that the government is striving to improve in order to reduce the number of Indonesians seeking treatment overseas.

Figure 1

Highlights of this report include:

• While Indonesia has greatly improved its healthcare outcomes, it is still grappling with the issues of malnutrition and a high maternal mortality rate. This is coupled by infectious disease outbreaks especially after each of the several natural disasters that hit the country. Improving basic health parameters, with the help of the WHO and several international partners, will remain a key healthcare goal for the government.
• IDC Health Insights believes that the investment priorities of the industry will be aligned with supporting the decentralization of healthcare administration, and bridging the disparity in healthcare facilities and provisions, across the country.
• While there have been several isolated instances of how telemedicine can benefit the Indonesian society, the government needs to make concerted investments in telemedicine initiatives. Indonesia's focus on building its broadband capabilities and the growing popularity of smartphones can be utilized to bring about a paradigm shift in healthcare provision.

For more information about the research, please contact Sudev Bangah at +6221-520-3496 or sbangah@idc.com. To set up an interview with Sash Mukherjee, please contact Agita Saraswati at +6221-520-3496 or asaraswati@idc.com

About IDC Health Insights

IDC Health Insights provides health and life sciences industry executives, and the suppliers who serve them, with market research and advisory services. The company’s coverage spans the entire health industry value chain and closely follows the payer, provider and life sciences markets with special emphasis on developing and employing strategies that leverage IT investments to maximize organizational performance. Staffed by expert analysts and consultants with extensive industry experience, IDC Health Insights delivers a portfolio of offerings that are relevant to both IT and business needs. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology, media, research, and events company. For more information, please visit www.idc-hi.com.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 47 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

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