This collaboration must be carried out immediately to improve, strengthen, and equalize cardiovascular care in Indonesia. We will develop it so that people no longer have to wait long to get treatment.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Health is exploring cooperation with a well-known medical center in the United States—the Cleveland Clinic—for developing services for cardiovascular or heart disease patients in Indonesia.

"In a special meeting session with a number of Cleveland Clinic representatives, we had the opportunity to discuss the potential for cooperation that we could develop to help advance cardiac care in Indonesia," Deputy Minister of Health, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, said in a written statement received here on Saturday.

The cooperation for developing cardiovascular care in Indonesia will involve Harapan Kita Heart and Vascular Hospital and Cleveland Clinic.

Harbuwono and the president director of Harapan Kita Heart and Vascular Hospital, Iwan Dakota, made a working visit to Cleveland from September 11–15, 2022, to explore the cooperation.

According to the deputy minister, the cooperation was explored as part of the implementation of the second pillar of health transformation, namely the transformation of referral services to improve access and quality of secondary and tertiary healthcare, especially to develop heart disease care on the lines of Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular, and Thoracic Institute (HVTI).

In Indonesia, the number of hospitals that offer integrated cardiovascular care is still low, he noted.

"Of course, this causes problems because patients have to be referred to a central hospital. As a result, the waiting time for services becomes very long," he explained.

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Some heart disease patients even choose to seek treatment abroad. Thus, the cooperation is expected to support the provision of equitable cardiovascular care in Indonesia, he said.

"This collaboration must be carried out immediately to improve, strengthen, and equalize cardiovascular care in Indonesia. We will develop it so that people no longer have to wait long to get treatment," he added.

Cleveland Clinic’s chief of operations, Bill Peacock, welcomed Indonesia's interest in cooperation.

"Cleveland Clinic has previously collaborated with a number of universities in Indonesia in training and organizing health seminars," he said.

Director of international business development at Cleveland Clinic, Rosanne Kho, said collaborations that can be developed between Indonesia and Cleveland Clinic include consulting agreements, CC Service Lines, and CC Strategic Partnerships as has been done in China.

The collaboration may also include health human resource development, which would include doctor training and doctor-to-doctor consultations between Harapan Kita Heart and Vascular Hospital and Cleveland Clinic.

As a follow-up to the meeting, a cooperation proposal and a work contract that includes the affiliation between Harapan Kita Heart and Vascular Hospital and Cleveland Clinic will be prepared.

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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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