What began as a move away from paper records has evolved into a sweeping digital transformation at Indonesia’s EMC Healthcare. In just five years, it has transitioned from paper-based records to an AI-powered Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system across its chain of eight hospitals.

The group’s flagship Alam Sutera hospital was the first to implement Intersystems’ TrakCare EMR in December 2022. The remaining seven hospitals followed in quick succession, completing their system rollouts by June 2024, for a deployment timeframe of just eighteen months.

Just a year after, EMC announced it would be the first in the Asia-Pacific region to adopt Intersystems’ IntelliCare system which comes with integrated AI features. “Our management team believes that AI is the future for healthcare,” said Mr Wildan Djohany, IT Director at EMC who led the EMR implementation. “We see these investments delivering long-term benefits for our patients, clinicians and the organisation.”

 

AI-driven EMR functionalities

EMC’s new EMR comes with two key AI modules: an AI assistant and an ambient listening tool.

The AI assistant helps clinicians retrieve information – such as patient medical histories – through natural language queries, so they do not have to spend additional time searching for them. It also allows the IT team to identify frequently accessed information and surface them through shortcut buttons.

On the other hand, the ambient listening function converts patient-doctor conversations into text and automatically enters it into the EMR in standardised SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) format, while also generating associated orders for laboratory tests, medications and imaging. This reduces doctors’ documentation workload and allows them to focus more on face-to-face interactions with patients.

As relatively new technologies, these tools are being refined in close collaboration with the vendor, Mr Wildan noted. For example, doctors have requested for a desktop version of the ambient listening tool, instead of the existing mobile version. Some have had recordings interrupted by phone calls, while others prefer to keep workflows on just the desktop. As with most AI transcription tools, accuracy can be tricky especially in situations when doctors switch between Bahasa Indonesia and English – though accuracy is estimated to be already above 85%.

Doctors are warming up with the tool, with good uptake in the Emergency department (ED).

“In the ED, doctors usually treat the patients before they document the episode in the system. They do not always remember the exact details of conversations or interventions,” he said. “With ambient recording, they can review and validate the transcribed notes before finalising documentation.”

Since go-live last August, around 209 of EMC’s 700-odd doctors have used the AI assistant, with a smaller but growing number leveraging ambient listening. Uptake is expected to increase as the IT team continues onboarding doctors and enhancements are introduced.

Expanding AI use cases across the organisation

Beyond EMR, EMC is deploying AI across both clinical and operational functions.

A WhatsApp chatbot, integrated with the EMR, handles appointment requests and general enquiries.

AI-enabled retinal screening tools are used across all EMC hospitals to assess patients’ risk of chronic diseases, while an AI application for chest X-ray analysis is currently being rolled out.

More are in the pipeline, including an AI voice bot that can take on general hotline calls. In tests so far, the bot has demonstrated response times of under three seconds, maintaining a natural pace of conversation.

Several interesting projects have emerged from staff suggestions – a positive sign reflecting growing awareness and acceptance of AI across different levels of the organisation, Mr Wildan noted.

One such project applies AI in reviewing legal documents. For documents in foreign languages, AI helps to translate them into Bahasa first, summarises them, and suggests corrections to be made based on EMC’s requirements.

Another tool checks through documentation for BPJS (Indonesia’s national health insurance scheme), flagging missing information to reduce claim rejections and processing delays.

Driving effective AI implementation in healthcare

Reflecting on his experience implementing AI projects, Mr Wildan identified clinician buy-in as the most critical success factor.

“Ministry of Health Indonesia’s directive – that every doctor, whether they are practising in a hospital, clinic or at home, should use EMR – has been critical to our successful EMR roll-out,” he said.

However, sustaining uptake requires close, constant clinician engagement.

“We have a team which focuses on training and onboarding doctors to any new tools. For doctors, the most important thing is whether the new technology saves time, reduces errors or improves care quality – if yes, adoption usually follows.”

Equally important is data and cybersecurity readiness. As digital adoption accelerates, EMC is seeing rapid growth in data volumes. The team is closely monitoring server capacity to ensure infrastructure can support growing needs.

To mitigate the risk of cyberattacks, EMC conducted a third-party penetration test last year to identify vulnerabilities. It is now working towards ISO 27001 certification, the international standard for information security management.

Undoubtedly, AI adoption will remain a strategic priority for EMC in the year ahead.

“My role as a CIO is to humanise AI and promote its use to our staff – not only sophisticated or expensive AI tools, but also the simple, accessible ones we can use in our day-to-day work. At scale, I believe this would make a huge difference to how we work and how we deliver care to our patients,” Mr Wildan concluded.