JAKARTA (ANTARA) – Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) could bring about major improvements to the country's health services.
“Today, technology is constantly developing and I believe it will eventually change humanity as well,” Sadikin said in a statement received here on Tuesday.
The Minister emphasized that the use of AI in the medical field will enable more precise assistance.
According to Sadikin, the human body has more than 30 million genetic variants, 87 billion neurons in the brain, 300 trillion cells, and 37 trillion microorganisms, all of which are interconnected and affect an individual's condition.
“Imagine using empirical methods as usual to learn about all this. So to find out how the body's systems work scientifically, you would need to use AI technologies (as much as possible), not just play chess or ChatGPT,” he said.
According to the minister, through comprehensive analysis using AI, the results could help medical professionals provide the best care to all patients.
Sadikin said another change AI will bring about is improving the way doctors work by enabling them to detect non-communicable diseases such as heart disease more effectively, efficiently and accurately.
“Earlier, doctors used stethoscopes to diagnose heart diseases by listening to the heartbeat. I don't think this is scientific. How can a doctor know if there is heart disease just from the sound?” he questioned.
Technology has since improved, he said, and electrocardiograms have become more accurate at detecting heart disease. CT scanners have been introduced, which can detect heart disease by scanning the chest, he said.
Sadikin said genetic testing to find mutations that can cause heart disease is the latest technology.
“My point is, (this technology) is going to be a game changer in healthcare,” he said.
But he said the use of AI in the medical sector is not new. The government has used WhatsApp to provide telemedicine services during the COVID-19 outbreak and installed Starlink to improve internet connectivity to public health centers in remote areas, he noted.
“We hope that Google will support the government in providing geotagging to help map diseases at a local scale. In this way, we believe that AI technology can be a game changer in the healthcare sector,” the minister said.
Putri Alam, director of government relations and public policy at Google Indonesia, said the administration is committed to supporting the government in digitizing the national health service.
“Google has been working with the Ministry of Health since last month to advance the introduction of AI in health services, including the potential use of generative AI on the SATUSEHAT platform,” Alam said.
According to Alam, such support is in line with Indonesia's digital transformation plan and the Digital Indonesia Vision 2045.
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