Overview the development of tele health and mobile health application in Indonesia

Telemedicine is one of interaction model between physician and patients in the era of globalization. All of the countries in the world are now in position of aggressive establishment of telemedicine especially huge country such Indonesia. In Indonesia, there's a great disparity of healthcare coverage. According to survey in 2013, almost 94.1% of households is located more than 5 km from the nearest healthcare facility. In contrast, Indonesia has one of the better broadband penetration in South East Asia. It is projected that 66% of Indonesian population will be reached by broadband access in 2017. This create a perfect opportunity for telehealth services to enable greater coverage for healthcare services for patients in Indonesia. Implementation of telehealth in Indonesia has begun with tele-ECG and tele-radiology program initiated by Harapan Kita and Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital. The development of telehealth has changed a new paradigm on interaction between patients and doctors. Patients doesn't need to go to the hospital for asking the treatment for their diseases. Now patients gain easily a lot of health information through advancement of information, communication and technology everywhere, anywhere and whatever they want according to their needs. The concept of consumer health informatics should bring health information closer into patients than health provider's perspectives. Many mobile health applications which is one of technology fulfilled this enquires was developed in Indonesia. This development of telemedicine and mobile health has raising a lot of issues on medical ethics, confidentiality, and medico-legal that should be regulated by government. In the future, the government should establish a good standard of care among the patients and setting standard for health-care workers readiness in preparing the development of telemedicine and mobile health application in Indonesia.