Garut Towards a Digitally-Enabled District: Director General of Primary and Community Health Review the Utilization of the Local Area Monitoring Dashboard (PWS) for National Scale-Up

Garut, July 4, 2025 – The Director General of Primary and Community Health, dr. Maria Endang Sumiwi, together with the core team of the Ministry of Health's Digital Health Transformation, conducted a working visit to Garut Regency to observe firsthand the implementation of the Digitally Enabled District (DED) program. This initiative has produced a national model for the Local Area Monitoring Dashboard (PWS) and demonstrated the use of data for action to strengthen the Integrated Primary Health Care Services (ILP). The DED program is a collaborative effort between the Garut Regency Government through the District Health Office, the Indonesian Ministry of Health, and the Summit Institute for Development (SID). The DED program aims to integrate primary health care service data from both in-facility (indoor) and outreach (outdoor) services, with full support from the Gates Foundation.

The village midwife of Girimukti, Midwife Inoh Bubu, explained the process of using the Bidan-Ku App (*KuApps) for recording health services at the integrated health post (Posyandu)

During the visit, the Director General was accompanied by the Expert Staff of the Ministry of Health, the Director of Primary Care Governance, the Head of the Center for Data and Information (Pusdatin), as well as other officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Health. The delegation visited three health service points: Posyandu Bunga Mekar, Girimukti Auxiliary Health Center (Puskesmas Pembantu), and Cibatu Primary Health Center (UPT Puskesmas Cibatu).

The core team of the Digital Health Transformation Program from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia observed the types of data that midwives and health volunteers can input through the Kader-Ku Apps (*KuApps)

At the Bunga Mekar Integrated Health Post (Posyandu), a delegation from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia (MoH Indonesia) held a direct dialogue with community health Cadres and village midwives to review the implementation of health service record-keeping, which is now transitioning from a manual system to a digital system through the utilization of the KuApps applications: Kader-Ku and Bidan-Ku Apps. The KuApps applications are considered capable of improving the efficiency and accuracy of health service recording at the community level, including home visits. However, technological infrastructure limitations, especially unstable internet signals, remain a challenge, so digital recording cannot yet be conducted fully in real-time. To address this challenge, *KuApps has been designed with an offline mode feature that allows staff to continue recording service results without relying on immediate internet connectivity, with data automatically synchronized once a network becomes available.

“Local governments and partner institutions are expected to continue improving technological infrastructure to realize digitally enabled primary health services down to the grassroots level. If all processes at Posyandu are fully digitalized, paper-based documentation will no longer be necessary,” said dr. Maria Endang.

The person in charge of the auxiliary health center (Pustu), Nurse Irwan Kurniawan, explained the utilization of the PWS dashboard in the Girimukti Village area.

The team reviewed the findings from Girimukti Village as presented on the PWS (Local Area Monitoring) dashboard.

The delegation then visited Girimukti Auxiliary Health Center (Pustu Girimukti), where they were presented with the use of a local monitoring dashboard (PWS). This dashboard is used by health workers to assess the community’s health status and identify at-risk targets in the Girimukti Village area. dr. Maria Endang stated that the utilization of this dashboard is highly strategic, particularly in efforts to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.

“Through the by-name, by-address data feature in the dashboard, health workers at the Pustu or Puskesmas can identify if a pregnant woman is experiencing complications, such as heart disease. In such cases, health workers must refer the mother to deliver at a hospital rather than scheduling her delivery at the health center,”said dr. Maria Endang.

At Cibatu Public Health Center, dr. Maria Endang and her team reviewed the workflow of Primary Care Integration (ILP) services and Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Services (PONED). Additionally, the team observed firsthand the implementation of a digital home visit scheduling system through dynamic worker support, as well as the use of a dashboard to monitor community health status in real time.

The Head of Cibatu Community Health Center (Puskesmas), dr. Dinan Bagja Nugraha, MM.Kes, explained that the DED program has provided comprehensive support for digital transformation, ranging from training for health workers and cadres, provision of physical infrastructure,  to developing a digital ecosystem based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR). The main goal of the program is to ensure that public health data in Garut Regency can eventually be interoperably connected with the Ministry of Health’s SatuSehat platform. As part of its implementation, the *KuApps application is being used as a pilot platform based on FHIR. In addition, the DED program is equipped with a call center service, WhatsApp API and integration with the local area monitoring dashboard, designed to support more targeted health planning and interventions.

The Secretary of the Garut District Health Office added that the PWS dashboard is very useful for program decision-making, as most data from both facility-based and community-based services are already displayed on the PWS dashboard. Entering the second phase of the DED program, the Garut Regency Government hopes that *KuApps application can be developed to cover all health programs  based on the life cycle, especially for out-of-facility record-keeping, not only maternal and child services. The PWS dashboard will provide comprehensive data from both health facility services and activities in the community and its networks.

dr. Maria Endang stated that the DED program is a mandate from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia entrusted to the Summit Institute for Development (SID), with Garut serving as a pilot project for developing a digitally capable district. The Director General expressed gratitude to SID, the Garut Regency Government, and all parties involved for the success of this program. She plans to scale up the PWS dashboard after making several necessary updates to clusters 3, 4, and cross-cluster data. It is also expected that the dashboard will be routinely used by Community Health Centers (Puskesmas), auxiliary health centers (Pustu), and village officials to ensure optimal implementation of the Primary Health Service Integration (ILP).

“The success of the DED implementation in Garut is hoped to serve as a model for national replication, starting with the utilization of the local area monitoring dashboard,” said dr. Maria Endang.

As a follow-up step, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with SID, plans to organize a national workshop to discuss the refinement of indicators in the dashboard, ensuring alignment with all national health program indicators.