DAAD Alumni Seminar on Health Technology Assessment 2024 and Trade Fair MEDICA 2024

Posted on April 27, 2025

4 – 14 November 2024, Heidelberg and Dusseldorf, Germany

Twenty-three alumni from 16 countries across four continents are gathering on 4-9 November 2024 at the University of Heidelberg to attend the Assessing Health Technology in Public Health seminar, which the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH) organized with the support of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)/German Academic Exchange Service. The seminar was part of the DAAD SDG Alumni Project within the trade fair MEDICA 2024 framework. The seminar aimed to provide participants with the tools to drive evidence-informed decision-making processes, including health technology. Out of the 23 alumni, 12 are people from Asia, including me from Indonesia, nine are from Africa, one is from America, and one is from Europe. Interestingly, the number of female participants outnumbered the male participants. The seminar is facilitated by Prof Olaf Horstick, Prof. Shafiu Mohamed, and Dr. Umar Nasir.

Like other alumni seminars, the conference was structured into interactive lectures and plenary discussions to introduce knowledge and concepts, group work, and discussions to conceptualize and apply new knowledge to practical contexts.

Day 1, 4 November 2024

On 4 November 2024, the first day of the seminar, the participants had a brief self-introduction that includes their name, current work, reason for joining the seminar, the number of languages they speak, and their expectations for the workshop. The morning session was followed by Prof Olaf’s introduction to the program’s structure and the concept of health technology assessment. Further, Prof Olaf also clearly explained the different ideas on evidence-based medicine, evidence-informed public health, and evidence-informed decision-making.

In the afternoon session, Prof Shafiu presented the group exercise and assignment, during which the participants were expected to develop a recommendation on a public health intervention on the topic of their interest after carrying out their health technology assessment. The first day of the seminar was closed with a welcome reception and networking between the alumni, current staff, and master’s students at HIGH.

Day 2-4, 5-7 November 2024

We spent three days on lectures and hands-on group work recommending a health intervention to the stakeholders. Day 2 was spent with a lecture on assessing the health problem, gathering the evidence, and initiating local research if necessary to provide better evidence-informed public health, followed by group work. Day 3 was spent choosing the appropriate intervention and the justification for selecting the intervention among several intervention options. By the end of the day, we also had the group work. Day 4 was spent with the implementation and planning of the implementation. This will also include the monitoring and evaluation of the intervention we chose.

I joined a group of 7 (from Armenia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Ethiopia) which agreed to carry out an intervention: Assess the daily intake of milk in school children (11-15 years old) to improve their nutritional status and school performance in Armenia. This exercise was just similar intervention with the current government of Indonesia in introducing the meals to school children. We came across some references such as the school meals program by World Food Program (WFP) and worldwide school milk programs.

We closed the Day-4 with a visit to the German Cancer Center.

Visit to the German Cancer Center

Home to 3.4K employees, 800 of whom come from 88 countries, DKFZ is one of the excellent cancer research centers in the world. This center has been established more than 60 years ago. Two Nobel laureates come from this center. One of them is Herald zur Hausen. Thanks to him for discovering that the Human Papilloma vaccine (HPV) causes cervical cancer. Now, the HPV vaccine is available from the bivalent and quadrivalent to 9-valent HPV vaccine to protect not only the cancer but also the genital wards. DKFZ is also the home of two Nobel laureates and one of the WHO-collaborating centers on Tobacco Control.

During this visit, I and other participants were also lucky to hear Christina Stengl present information on 3D printing in cancer patients. We could touch the phantoms of the spine, lungs, skulls, and bladder.

There is also ongoing research in DKFZ using AI for imaging to support skin cancer diagnosis therapy, which improved its accuracy by around 30%. It was a fantastic experience visiting this center, and thanks to Anna Munz and Prof Olaf, who facilitated the group to have this happen.

Day 5, 8 November 2024

On the last day of the seminar, we discussed the economic perspective of decision-making in public health. The role it plays in decision-making in public health. Prof. Shafiu shared an interesting article on the cost-effectiveness of public health interventions examined by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence from 2005 to 2018. We also learned about economic evaluation, where we need to consider several factors in the review, such as resource allocation, efficiency, comparative analysis, long-term planning, and equity consideration. Several forms of economic evaluation include cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), cost-utility analysis (CUA), cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and cost-minimization analysis (CMA). For the practical application, we can conduct CEA and CUA for resource prioritization, CBA for long-term investment, and CMA for cost saving. The importance of health economics lies in its concern with how society allocates its resources, alternative uses, scarcity, efficiency, and equity.

By the end of the day, all the groups had presented their public health interventions. The seminar was concluded with a feedback session.

Wonderful catch-up with Ms. Anke Stahl

From Kalay and Jakarta in 2016, then Hanoi in 2017 and now Bonn in 2024

I just had a short but fantastic meeting with Ms. Anke Stahl, who signed my DAAD Scholarship Letter of Award in 2012. I thanked her for the opportunity to study in Germany. DAAD really spoils its alumni with diverse alumni capacity-building events, which is why I am here now in Germany. The alumni events also offer networking among its alumni from around the world with different backgrounds.

It’s great to see you, Anke. Thanks for hosting. My short trip was worth it. I just learned that Bonn is the birthplace of Beethoven. Til next time!

MEDICA Fair 2024, Dusseldorf

Medica is the world’s largest event for the medical sector. For over 40 years, it has been firmly established on every expert’s calendar. MEDICA attracted several thousand exhibitors from almost 70 countries in the halls. Furthermore, each year, leading individuals from the field of business, research and politics grace this top-class event with their presence – naturally alongside tens of thousands of national and international experts and decision makers from the sectors, An extensive exhibition and an ambitious programme – with together present the entire spectrum of innovation for outpatient and clinical care.

With alums from the Faculty of Health and Healthcare Sciences, University of Applied Sciences Zwickau, and HIGH, I attended this year’s MEDICA Fair, which focused on Digital Health. So far, it’s the biggest medical fair I’ve attended. The Fair also offered some educational programs with thematic talks. The topic of digital health was quite new for me. I learned a lot, especially some developments on the AI in health care, the AI utilization such as AI agents, GenAI, its utilization in sport wearables, and many more. Apart from that, this was my first time hearing about AI hallucination.

I was privileged to be selected as one of the speakers at the MEDICA Lab Forum on AI and National Health Insurance.

MEDICA LAB FORUM Presentation

I thought the presentation was only for the classroom exercise, but it turned out that it was for the Medica Lab Forum in MEDICA 2024, an annual event with 83,000 visitors and more than 5K exhibitors. However, it allowed me to learn deeply about AI and review the current status of Indonesia’s National Health Insurance system. I also had the chance to consult with the expert, Prof. Ali Ghufron Mukti, who is the current Director of Indonesian National Health Insurance/BPJS.

It was a pleasure to present at this forum, organized by the DAAD, a joint session between Heidelberg and the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences Zwickau.

The following topics were presented:

Public Health Workforce: Competence-based Education – Prof. Dr. Makhabat Karagulova, KYRGYZSTAN
Potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (and Ethical Challenges) for Loneliness Management – Andres Felipe Mejia Medina. COLOMBIA
Use of AI for Prediction of Diseases (e.g., Lung Diseases) – Pratima Rai. NEPAL
The Role of AI in Health Insurance Programs – Fina Hidayati Tams, INDONESIA
Innovative Point-of-Care Diagnostics for NCDs in Resource-Limited Settings – Ahmad Siyar Noormal, AFGHANISTAN

Thanks to Prof. Olaf and Ms. Anna Munz for the opportunity and Ms. Jamila Nabieva for the recommendation. Thanks for trusting me to MAKE IT, dear Jamila. It pushed me beyond my limit. The sleepless nights paid off.

Thanks to all DAAD alumni who supported the event and incidentally became the DAAD alumni press. Such a lovely group! Lastly, thank you, Ms. Aufa Fathya, for the fantastic layout and graph.

Presentation_AI_in_NHI_Indonesia_20231113_Final Download

Special session on Women’s leaders at MEDICA 2024

Out of the many thematic educational sessions during the MEDICA Fair 2004, I was interested in joining the special session on Women’s leadership. It was a panel of four female leaders. The key Takeaways I noted were: