Jakarta (ANTARA) – Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare requires strict governance and an ethical foundation, warning that the technology’s deployment directly impacts patient safety.
Speaking at a national conference in Jakarta, Monday (June 8), Dante issued a reminder that in the medical field, algorithmic errors carry life-or-death consequences.
“When a computer program recommends a diagnosis to a doctor, who is responsible if the recommendation is wrong?” Dante said in a statement on Wednesday.
He acknowledged that AI opens up massive opportunities to improve health services, from early disease detection and faster diagnoses to processing vast amounts of clinical data.
However, the technology also carries risks, including biased data, misdiagnoses, and threats to patient data privacy.
Therefore, he emphasized that AI integration must be accompanied by robust governance, adaptive regulation, and a non-negotiable ethical commitment.
“Innovation without governance is risk. And governance without innovation is stagnation,” Dante remarked.
Indonesia has been progressively integrating these technologies into its public health infrastructure. Since 2023, the Health Ministry has utilized AI-powered portable X-ray devices for Tuberculosis screening, testing approximately 200,000 residents by 2025.
Recent clinical trials in Indonesia reveal that AI significantly reduces diagnostic errors, consistently outperforming human doctors in detecting major illnesses.
In lung cancer screenings using Harrison.ai, the technology achieved a 90 percent accuracy rate, compared to 83 percent for radiologists working alone.
The performance gap was even wider in stroke detection trials conducted with RSUP Dr. M. Djamil and the National Brain Center Hospital. When analyzing brain CT scans, the AI reached a 98 percent accuracy rate in identifying healthy tissue, while manual human readings averaged just 74 percent.
The technology also proved highly effective for high-volume public health screenings. In a mass Tuberculosis initiative using Qure.ai, the system evaluated 38,000 scans, successfully flagging 4,000 suspected TB cases and discovering 12,000 other underlying lung abnormalities.
“This data proves one thing: AI does not just detect one disease, but opens up greater opportunities to maintain patient safety and health,” Dante explained.
Despite these breakthroughs, officials stress that technology cannot outpace policy.
The national conference, titled “Towards the Future of a Safe, Fair, and Responsible Health Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem”, focused heavily on implementing rigid ethical guidelines, securing patient consent, and establishing bulletproof data governance.
Dante noted that the ministry is looking to draft concrete regulations covering AI-based medical devices, patient data consent forms, and expanding the oversight capacity of the Health Research Ethics Committee.
Echoing these concerns, the ministry’s Director General of Advanced Health Azhar Jaya confirmed that infrastructure is already being built to safeguard the public.
The government has established the SATUSEHAT and SATUSEHAT AI platforms to act as digital fortresses and monitoring bodies.
“Future research must be preceded by a monitoring body. Therefore, the Health Ministry formed SATUSEHAT and SATUSEHAT AI to ensure that Indonesian people’s data is not misused or exploited by irresponsible parties,” he concluded.
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Translator: Mecca Yumna Ning Prisie, Yashinta Difa
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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