FK-KMK UGM. The Ministry of Health of Indonesia has aimed to build capacity in Indonesia for a transition from conventional medicine to precision medicine. Precision medicine is a treatment that addresses an individual’s needs because of differences between each person’s risk factors and disease outcome.

This explanation was given by Ines Irene Caterina Atmosukarto, Ph.D. (Lipotek Pty. Ltd.) in her presentation titled “Biomedical and Genome Science Initiative (BGSi): Opportunities and Challenges” in Summer Course 2023. Summer Course 2023 will be held for 2 weeks from November 6, 2023 to November 17, 2023.

She said that health is influenced by multiple factors and a better understanding of risk factors is important to prevent disease. “Precision medicine helps improve patient’s health outcomes, which also improves the efficiency of the government’s national budget,” she said.

Building a competitive edge in the area of precision medicine requires investment in key areas, such as strengthening the healthcare ecosystem, strengthening the information system, centralized EHR, management of genomics assets of Indonesia’s rich diversity, and striving for scientific excellence.

One of the countries that has used this method is Taiwan. Prof. Wang-Tso Lee from National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital spoke about his experience in treating DMD (Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy) patients. The treatments given to his patients have proven not to cause changes to the brain. Examples of cases he treated at NTU Children’s Hospital are autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia and cerebral palsy.

Summer Course 2023 aims to enhance interprofessional in healthcare management and technology with accompanying issues with an interdisciplinary and multi-university approach. This is in line with one of the goals of the SDGs, which is quality education. (Reporter: Nirwana)