UGM Academic Urges AI Support for Rural Puskesmas Under the Indonesia–Korea Health AI Pact
Indonesia should use its artificial intelligence partnership with South Korea to bring AI support to community health centres, or puskesmas, especially in remote areas, according to Dedy Permadi, an international relations lecturer at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Antara reported. He spoke at a workshop in Jakarta on October 30 for a young journalists’ network on Korea, organised by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia and the Korea Foundation.
The two governments signed a memorandum of understanding on AI for primary health and human development in Seoul on April 1, 2026. It covers AI in public health services, maternal and child health, community-based mental health, and health resilience through data and digital systems, with plans for technology exchange, training, joint projects and expert involvement.
Dedy said South Korea already has a prototype AI system for basic health care that has been tested in one of its rural areas. In his view the deal could work for both sides: Indonesia gains better services at village puskesmas, while Korea gets to test its technology across a large archipelago. He stressed knowledge transfer so that Indonesia becomes more than a user, with skills gains for health workers, engineers and researchers.
What it means in practice
He also pointed to gaps. The memorandum carries no specific budget, and funding, data governance, intellectual property, targets and timelines still need work, even though working groups and ministerial talks have started. Howon Kim, president of the Korea Institute of Information Security and Cryptology, said each project needs a defined problem, clear users and a way to measure results, and that AI in hospitals depends on training data, an operating budget and procedures for handling errors.
Those conditions echo the government’s own approach to medical AI. The health ministry’s sandbox recently cleared 11 health innovators while Komdigi stressed human oversight, and officials have said Indonesia will write sector-specific AI rules for health, education and finance. Cooperation with Seoul is not new either: a shared ASEAN supercomputer built with Korea opened at BRIN in Cibinong.
For a puskesmas in a remote district, the value of such a tool would depend on basics that are often missing, including stable connectivity, staff time for training and clear rules on who is responsible when a recommendation is wrong.
What to watch next is whether the two governments agree a budget and first pilot locations, which provinces are chosen, and how patient data from puskesmas would be governed if Korean systems are used.