Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia's Health Ministry and Australia's Harrison.ai have agreed to collaborate to implement artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, such as for CT scans, to improve health service quality.

The collaboration was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday.

The ministry's Director General for Health Services, Azhar Jaya, said that the use of AI in Indonesia, particularly in healthcare, is unavoidable. Some countries that have incorporated AI into healthcare have been found to offer better services that are more accurate, effective, and efficient.

A clinical trial will be conducted in Indonesia to assess AI technology in healthcare and gain public acceptance for its benefits.

However, technology does not stand on its own, Jaya said, stressing the importance of building doctors' expertise in managing it.

The AI-based technology will be implemented in some hospitals, such as Dharmais Cancer Hospital in Jakarta and Dr. M. Djamil Hospital in Padang.

Meanwhile, co-founder of Harrison.ai Dimitry Tran said that he was delighted to work with the ministry on tackling the challenge.

Indonesia currently has six radiologists for every 1 million people, whereas Australia has 91 radiologists for every 1 million people, he said.

"Indonesian doctors are working very hard for a very large population. We see the role of AI as an assistant and a tool for radiologists to be more efficient in their work," Tran added.

He said that this is a long-term collaboration under which they will seek to invest in other services, including data hosting, in Indonesia.

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