Indonesian digital healthcare platform Halodoc has partnered with global video social media app TikTok to provide educational content in Southeast Asia's largest country, as it continues to fight health-related hoaxes and disinformation.

The app has three main features: an online drugstore with more than 4,000 pharmacy partners, a chat and call platform to consult over 20,000 doctors, as well as an online platform to schedule appointments with doctors from around 2,000 hospital partners.

In a press statement released last Tuesday, both parties have come up with the #InfoKesehatan (#HealthInfo) initiative to publish information related to vaccinations, diseases, health facts and myths, maternal and child health, reproductive health and mental health.

During the #InfoKesehatan campaign, which ends today, videos from Halodoc and its doctor partners will be pinned and found on TikTok's search column. Once the initiative is over, those videos will remain available on the platform – but such keywords will no longer be put on its main page.

WHAT IT DOES

The same statement said that doctors would upload videos on health topics on Halodoc's and their TikTok platforms, ranging from 15 seconds to a minute. In addition, TikTok users can ask doctors relevant questions through comments for them to answer in another video.

Founded in 2016, Halodoc has accumulated more than 197,000 followers and over 948,000 likes on TikTok.

WHY IT MATTERS

In a survey conducted in October 2021, Indonesia's Katadata Insight Center which specialises in data analytics and research, found that 39.7 percent of its 10,000 respondents said health content had the second-most hoaxes in the country after politics.

"Besides equitable access to health services, health literacy still becomes a challenge in the health industry, which needs to be addressed in collaboration with various parties," said Halodoc's CMO Felicia Kawilarang in the same statement.

"We also believe that in today's digital era, digital platforms have the power to accelerate health education for society."

THE LARGER TREND

The Indonesian government is actively debunking false claims on COVID-19 vaccines, remedies and other related issues on its Hoax Buster channel. Meanwhile, Indonesian civil society organisation MAFINDO has published fact-check stories on the pandemic and other issues on Turnbackhoax.id.

ON THE RECORD

Adeline Hindarto, Halodoc's VP for government relations and corporate affairs, told MobiHealthNews in another statement that the company "is committed to (providing) correct and accurate information about health", including pertaining to the ongoing pandemic.

"The effort of information, education and communication on health has been done since the very beginning in 2016," she said.

"In addition, Halodoc has been collaborating with the Indonesian Ministry of Health in COVID-19 mitigation, one of which is by providing IEC related to COVID-19 since March 2020. More health-related articles and resources can always be accessed in our application, website and social media."