CGDHI and eHealthLab Ethiopia Lead Workshop on Digital Health Transformation in Indonesia

In March, 2023, the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Digital Health Innovation (CGDHI) and eHealthLab Ethiopia led a workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia, to better understand the pathway to achieving digital transformation of primary health care (PHC) and co-design a Theory of Change (ToC) for digital health interventions. The ToC mapped PHC outcomes with relevant digital health interventions and enablers, and identified key research questions that will better inform decision-making and investments for digital health in Indonesia.

Through a series of group-based exercises, the workshop participants worked backwards, with the vision in mind, to link the impact of different inputs and outputs on digital health and PHC related outcomes, such as maternal morbidity and mortality, non-communicable diseases, and pandemic preparedness. Health reporting, personal health records, and personalized health notifications were just some of the discussed outputs and outcomes. 

By leveraging the WHO-ITU eHealth Framework, which comprises the seven domains of leadership and governance; strategy and investment; services and application; standards and interoperability; infrastructure; legislation, policy, and compliance; and workforce, workshop participants organized the digital health enablers into actionable items with prioritized research questions.

Understanding the broader vision, the PHC outcomes of interest, and the participant-prioritized digital interventions that can be used to facilitate those outcomes, the framework for the ToC was developed, and included the critical digital health inputs and outputs required for changes in outcomes related to digital health and primary healthcare.

Workshop participants were representatives from the Digital Transformation Office (DTO), JSI-CHISU, AeHIN, USAID Indonesia, UNICEF, UNDP, Atensi, Association for Health Tech in Indonesia, Reconstra, Tony Blair Institute, and the World Bank. Participants also included the multi-partner Digital Health Exemplars research group: CGDHI, eHealth Lab Ethiopia, Gates Ventures, World Bank, and McKinsey Health Institute. Over 40 people participated in the workshop.

This work is part of the Exemplars in Global Health Initiative for the Service Delivery Transformation Through Digital Innovation Partnership which seeks to identify countries in which digital transformation in healthcare systems can be adopted and implemented. Via a core strategy, retrospective analyses in each partner country leverages expertise from across the core teams listed above and in collaboration with additional partners in the study-determined countries.