Overview

SPHERES will revolutionize public health through triple synergy:

1. Empowering public health services across programs,
2. Educating professionals with real-time, data-driven insights, and
3. Accelerating large-scale research to influence policies at local, national, and global levels.

The project is implemented as a large-scale stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial, rolling out interventions to 42 community health centers across two districts reaching a combined population of 1.75 million people.

At the heart of SPHERES is the creation of Indonesia’s first district-level health data ecosystem, where data interoperability empowers clients with access to their secure health records and enables health workers to take real-time, point-of-care and system-wide actions that improve service delivery and health outcomes.

Background

Indonesia is undergoing a digital transformation in healthcare, led by the government’s SatuSehat (OneHealth) initiative. This program integrates digital medical records, mobile apps, and data-sharing systems to improve healthcare efficiency and accessibility. However, despite significant progress, challenges remain. Many digital tools are underutilized, and frontline health workers lack the training and support needed to fully benefit from them.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, local district governments, and local non-profits, SPHERES is designed to bridge the gap between technology and real-world healthcare needs by establishing Public Health Data Theaters (PHDTs)—dedicated centers that will transform how health data is monitored, analyzed, and used for decision-making.

Project Design

At the core of SPHERES is the Public Health Data Theater (PHDT), an innovative training, research, and decision-making hub designed to help healthcare professionals make real-time, data-driven decisions.

SPHERES will achieve this through three key steps:

1. Building PHDTs – These facilities will serve as centralized hubs for data monitoring, analysis, and decision-making, allowing healthcare workers and policymakers to track disease patterns, improve service delivery, and respond quickly to public health challenges.
2. Providing ongoing support with SSTs – A Sustainable Scaling Team (SST) will be established to train, guide, and maintain PHDT operations in pilot districts, ensuring healthcare workers are fully equipped to use the data for improved patient care.
3. Ensuring interoperability with FHIR – To make PHDTs effective, FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) will be used to standardize and streamline data from hospitals, clinics, and apps, ensuring all systems can communicate and share health records seamlessly.

SPHERES transforms traditional public health practice into translational, computational, community health interventions and research—leveraging the latest in artificial intelligence, interoperable digital platforms, social science frameworks, and human resource capacity-building to deliver measurable improvements in health outcomes. With this approach, SPHERES will create a system where health data is not just collected but actively used to improve healthcare outcomes across Indonesia.

Objectives

SPHERES aims to:

1. Enhance healthcare decision-making – Establish PHDTs as a central hub where data can be analyzed and turned into actionable insights.
2. Train and support healthcare workers – Create Sustainable Scaling Teams (SSTs) that help primary care centers and other health facilities adopt digital tools and improve medical services.
3. Improve digital health systems with FHIR – Build a secure and integrated data-sharing network to ensure seamless medical record access across providers.
4. Increase patient engagement – Develop interactive dashboards and report cards that enable patients and healthcare providers to track health progress and improve services.
5. Drive cultural transformation in healthcare – Promote a shift from basic data reporting to a system where health data actively guides decisions and actions.
6. Create a scalable model – Establish two “model districts” where digital health practices can be tested and refined, serving as blueprints for nationwide expansion.

Status

We have selected two districts, West Lombok and Purbalingga, for project implementation. In each district, a flagship public primary care center has been chosen as the starting point for the project roll-out across the district. The project is scheduled to run until the end of 2026.