Bandung, lpik.itb.ac.id – On 18-19 July 2024, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices with the Directorate General of Health Personnel, held an exhibition and workshop entitled Medical Device Research Innovation 2024 at Grand Metropolitan Mall Bekasi.
This meeting was held by presenting exhibitions and talk shows aimed at advancing innovation in the Indonesian medical device sector. This event was attended by various agencies including universities, health polytechnics, and health associations such as Aspaki, Hipelki, and Gakeslab. The first day of the event was filled with exhibitions of innovative products that attracted the attention of visitors from various circles.
At this exhibition, ITB brought one of the innovative products developed by Mrs. Ernawati's team, namely the Hepatitis B, Syphilis and HIV Virus Diagnostic Kit. These products use an immunochromatographic method that is simpler, faster, and does not require a special operator compared to the ELISA method. The Jentre Rapid Test Kit on display also attracted the interest of many visitors, both from the general public and the health industry. This shows great potential for widespread adoption in the field.
Apart from the exhibition, this event is also a socialization event for the LPIK ITB team promoting the ITB CEO Summit 2024 which will be held next August. Several Health Polytechnics expressed interest in establishing research collaborations with ITB to produce innovative health products. It is hoped that this potential collaboration can accelerate the downstreaming of research and development of medical devices in Indonesia.
On the second day, the event continued with a panel discussion discussing various policies and strategies for developing national health equipment. Mr. Roy Himawan conveyed the importance of increasing the number of domestic medical device products as well as efforts to create a radiopharmaceutical industry in the coming year. The challenge currently faced is the inability of domestic medical equipment to meet national needs, this issue was the main concern in the ongoing panel discussion.
The discussion session also highlighted the importance of data sharing platforms to support research and innovation in the field of medical devices. Mulyadi Sinung from BRIN emphasized the need for better data integration to support the development of this platform. Although there is currently no specific information system for medical devices, there is potential to develop a platform that can facilitate collaboration between academia, business, government, media and communities.
This workshop closed with an emphasis on the important role of industry in commercializing technology developed by researchers. Muhammad Yusuf, Ph.D. (Unpad), in his presentation regarding teaching factorysaid that researchers must collaborate with industry that better understands market needs and conditions in the field. By involving industry from the start, the research downstream process can run more effectively and on target. This workshop was successful in opening new insights and strengthening collaboration between researchers, industry and various stakeholders in advancing medical device innovation in Indonesia.
