DCA helps Haleon to tackle healthcare inequalities in rural Indonesia

In rural Indonesia, people face a difficult choice - endure the physical and emotional burden of pain or make a long journey to access medical care that can be hours away. Over 42 million* people in Indonesia delay treatment because medical care is too far away.

Panadol set out to bridge the distance between these rural Indonesian communities in pain and the experts who could help. Panadol partnered with DCA and Indonesian health-tech platform Halodoc to develop the new telemedicine unit. The unit allows patients to receive a consultation over the phone and share key health metrics such as their heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels.

DCA supported Panadol in this initiative by rapidly designing, engineering and fabricating a working prototype for the Pain Phone in just over two months. DCA’s agile, multidisciplinary team overcame a series of technical and usability challenges in this time by curating a collection of existing technologies and integrating them into a new bespoke booth. The team ensured the design could operate in low bandwidth, rural areas and its usability allowed accessibility to the widest spectrum of patients.

The Panadol Pain Phone joined a wider healthcare initiative, the Panadol Klinik Ceketan program, which aimed to support 16 villages in the Cugenang district affected by the 2022 Cianjur Earthquake. As part of this broader activation, the Panadol Pain Phone helped to connect over 7000 patients who would otherwise have gone undiagnosed.

“Through the six pillars of transformation, we believe that digitalization is one of the keys to making healthcare more inclusive. The Panadol Klinik Cekatan and Pain Phone program by Haleon and Halodoc is a real example of how we can participate in accelerating health access throughout the country and making healthcare and health education accessible to more people.” Setiaji, Chief of the Digital Transformation Office at the Ministry of Health

As the partnership continues, more outreach efforts are planned to expand the mobile clinic’s coverage to other rural areas and develop the Pain Phone further in a collaborative effort with patients and health workers.

You can learn more about how DCA brought the Panadol Pain Phone to life on our case study page.

*1/3 of Indonesians: 2018 GLOBAL PAIN INDEX STUDY