speaker-ari-fahrial-syam

Ari Fahrial Syam is a Professor of Internal Medicine Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia. His research interest is gastroenterology, specifically Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, GERD and IBS. His Scopus H-Index by July 2021 is 14. One of his most impactful publications is the Indonesian H. pylori Wide Study, one of very few H. pylori research conducted nationally which result is used as benchmark data for further H. pylori study in Indonesia. In 2018, Prof. Ari was given the title of Professor in Internal Medicine from the FMUI with an Inauguration speech “The Future of Medical Research in the Era of Disruption and Precision Medicine: Research on Helicobacter pylori in Indonesia as a Model”.

He is elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia in 2017, leading a Faculty that consists of more than 4900 students. He has been successful in increasing FMUI’s reputation through collaboration with international faculties, increasing FMUI’s international publication, increasing the number of staffs with Ph.D degree, increasing number of Professors in FMUI, and sending crisis management team to Earthquake survivors in Palu, Donggala, and Sunda Strait. He make FMUI usefull for the community.

He served as the Chairman of the Asian Medical Dean Network for 2018-2020, an organization for leading medical institutions in the Southeast Asian Region. Since 2018 he serves as the Regional Ambassador of for Association of Academic Health Centers International (AAHCI) Southeast Asia Regional Office.

His passion as a clinician has led him to educate patients through many platforms, namely nationally televised Programs, radio, news, and blogs. He has also created a mobile application named “apa kata dokter” specifically to educate people concerning health issues.

Continuing breakthrough Innovation in telemedicine using Penta helix approach as a strategy to cope with COVID-19 pandemics

COVID-19 pandemic is a test for humanity and technology innovation. COVID-19 proved its resilience by performing the ability to mutate to many dangerous variants. Many health workers, doctors, and scientists have shared their best effort, tears, and even their lives fighting COVID.  Many countries and major cities had no choice but implementing lockdowns for a long time. Some epidemiology predictions are made, yet flattening the curve is extraordinarily challenging because it relates many aspects like people awareness, medication-vaccine, health resources and political, economic factors.

However, pandemics provide an opportunity to create breakthrough innovation. It forces scientists and doctors in all countries to collaborate, break any intellectual property walls, geographical borders and share their best knowledge to create telemedicine, e-learning,  teleconsultation and social awareness programs. Penta helix approach or collaboration among academics, business, government, community and media are pushed to increase program effectiveness.

Here are amongst achievements in the pandemics era in Indonesia together with other countries in Asia.  Telemedicine provides COVID-19 consultation from patients in self-isolation, like our students’ creation: EndCorona teleconsultation apps. Teleconsultation among medical workers, specialists to consultants, nurses and paramedic to doctors like TEMENIN platform form Ministry of Health. Regular international teleconference to share the latest medical issues and treatment and big data research discussions managed by TEMDEC and APAN medical working groups. More MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) platforms were developed to provide independent learning communities beyond country and university borders. There are a lot more I cannot mentions, and we are welcome to more innovation and fresh collaboration programs in telemedicine.

However, some issues prevail like internet infrastructure problems, like creating effective telemedicine in low bandwidth internet to enlarge the coverage, strategy to engage more users in telemedicine and e-learning platform, approach to maintaining the security in research and consultation data exchange. The other important strategy is to engage the government, business partners and social media in nurturing the program to grow as a long term successful Penta helix program. I believe APAN 52 is the perfect momentum where experts from medicine, technology and other crucial major gather to solve this problem together.