The Community Service of Professor Tati Latifah and the ITB Biomedical Team
We're probably already familiar with something called a chip, a small electronic component crucial to computer systems. Who would have thought that Indonesia has its own young people who also contributed to research into the initial design of modern chips in the 1980s?
It was Prof. Dr. Ir. Tati Latifah Erawati Rajab, commonly known as Mrs. Tati. She had been involved in and engaged with the world of microelectromagnetics since her time at the Bandung Institute of Technology. This naturally led Mrs. Tati and her team to automatically participate in chip research at that time.
Unfortunately, a stroke in 2004 forced her to suspend her research. After recovering, she, who remains the sole female professor at STEI to this day (2019), decided to apply her knowledge to the world of biomedicine, a field that combines technology and health. Besides seeking solutions to her stroke, she also sought to address the many emerging needs in the biomedical field.
Determination to Improve Health Quality Through Biomedical Technology
Biomedicine itself is actually a new department at ITB, which was founded in 2015. However, in 1997 there was already interest in this field.
One of ITB's biomedical products that is now beginning to be applied in the real world is a mobile phone software/app designed to educate mothers and children about health. This idea stemmed from concern over the still-high maternal and child mortality rates in Indonesia. Tragically, most deaths are due to trivial causes such as diarrhea and malnutrition.
"Our first thought was how to use ICT technology to help with this problem," explained Allya Paramita Koesoema, Ms. Tati's colleague who is also a member of the biomedical application development team.
Together with her mother, Yoke Saadia Swito, and the rest of the team, Allya ultimately designed an app to streamline administrative reporting and early detection for midwives. It also serves as a tool for mothers to better understand their children's health.
Brainstorming to ensure the app is usable by the public
After developing a biomedical application, the next step is promotion. How? Simply distributing it without publicizing it will undoubtedly be problematic, given the low reading interest among Indonesian mothers.
From there, Ms. Tati, Yoke, Allya, and the ITB biomedical team decided to develop board games as a complementary tool to make counseling more engaging for Indonesian mothers. This method has proven effective and is currently awaiting development as a mobile game.
The ITB biomedical team distributed this game at various community health centers and pregnancy classes.
In addition to applications for mothers and children, the ITB biomedical team is also developing another equally interesting technology for community service. They created a device that can be used to assist the rehabilitation process for post-stroke patients. The inspiration for this device was, of course, to help Mrs. Tati, who had previously suffered a stroke.
This project was entered in the medical device innovation competition at UI in 2017. From this development, the biomedical team had the opportunity to consult with doctors at UI.
This is where the idea to combine mirror therapy and bicycle therapy, commonly found in post-stroke rehabilitation, was born. Technically, this device would ask the patient to perform therapeutic movements, while simultaneously recording their brain signals for later analysis to determine which part of the brain was affected. This method has proven to be more effective and saves examination time.