Indonesia launches interoperability mediator to advance the country's digital transformation

The Ministry of Health’s Center for Data and Information Technology (PUSDATIN) and the Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control (P2PM), in collaboration with CHISU, launched the SATUSEHAT Interoperability Mediator in Jombang, East Java as the pilot district within CHISU focused areas. 

The Head of PUSDATIN, Tiomaida Seviana, explained how the mediator helps to strengthen the interoperability at national and sub-national levels. “The Mediator acts as a transition mechanism for existing applications and simplifies them to connect to SATUSEHAT, which is one of the most crucial points in digital health transformation,” said Seviana. “We hope this event can be the beginning of concrete actions to strengthen standardization, interoperability, and data analysis at both national and sub-national levels.” 

The launch included a demonstration from the TB Program Manager from DHO Jombang and a health worker from Puskesmas Perak Jombang District on how the SATUSEHAT Interoperability Mediator supported the process of sending data from the health facilities' EMR to SATUSEHAT and SITB in a faster and more efficient manner. 

“The SATUSEHAT Interoperability Mediator benefits us in data entry because, with only one-time entry to the EMR, the data is sent to both SATUSEHAT and SITB,” said Ibu Novi Kusrini, TB Program Manager at the District Health Office in Jombang. “It also helps us retrieve the necessary data, thus eliminating the possibility of missing data. This is very important as we need the correct data to determine the next action plan and decision making.” 

The SATUSEHAT interoperability mediator has had immediate impact, improving tracking of presumed TB cases and reducing the data entry burden for health workers. Health workers now only need to enter TB-related data in the health facility EMR for the data to be simultaneously sent to SATUSEHAT and SITB, reducing their data entry burden and improving data availability. 

“The Mediator acts as a transition mechanism for existing applications and simplifies them to connect to SATUSEHAT, which is one of the most crucial points in digital health transformation,” said Tiomaida Seviana, Head of PUSDATIN. “We hope this is the beginning of concrete actions to strengthen standardization, interoperability, and data analysis at both national and sub-national levels.”

Interoperability has already had a big impact on health workers time, reducing the amount of time they spend on data entry by up to 51%, from 8 minutes and 48 seconds to 4 minutes and 21 seconds, allowing them to have more time to provide essential health services. While the initial launch focused on TB data, the SATUSEHAT interoperability mediator will be expanded to include data from other health programs captured in the health facility EMR. The longer-term  vision is to scale up the use of the mediator nationwide and expand interoperability to include laboratory tests and, eventually, treatment outcomes for all health areas.