Nationwide implementation of digital non-communicable diseases screening in Indonesia’s primary care system

Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and partner institutions describe the national implementation of a digital non-communicable disease (NCD) screening system embedded within Indonesia’s primary care infrastructure and analyse the data gathered by this system, in a new study published in Nature Communications. This study examines whether a national digital health ecosystem can support large-scale implementation of NCD screening in a lower-middle-income country setting.

The team of researchers was given access to records of more than 115 million NCD screening encounters among more than 75 million individuals that took place between January 2023 and April 2024. These visits were reported from more than 10 000 primary health-care centres across all 38 provinces of Indonesia. Screening volume varies markedly across provinces, and recorded outcomes differ by age and sex.

Blood pressure and anthropometric measurements are recorded substantially more often than cholesterol testing and cancer screening. The findings extend evidence from smaller or disease-specific mobile health (mHealth) implementations, by documenting operations within routine national primary care in a lower-middle-income country.

The observed variation in screening coverage across service types highlights the interaction between digital systems and underlying health system capacity. Whereas basic assessments such as blood pressure and anthropometric measurements were more frequently recorded, more resource-intensive services – including cancer screening and cholesterol testing – were less frequently recorded.

These findings indicate that interoperable digital infrastructure can support population-scale monitoring of NCDs, but equitable implementation also depends on workforce, equipment, and service readiness.

Aisyah DN, Setiawan AH, Faradiba N, Lokopessy AF, Hamid NA, Jonathan W, et al.
Nationwide implementation of digital non-communicable diseases screening in Indonesia’s primary care system
Nat Commun. Published online 15 October 2026;
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78301-6

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