Professor Ika Dewi Ana, a lecturer from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, UGM Faculty of Dentistry, has received the Gold Winner Award for the Academic Leader Award in the health sector.
This award, granted by the Ministry of Higher Education, is given to individuals with an outstanding track record in implementing the tri-dharma and who have created various innovations that contribute to society.
According to Professor Ana, her Academic Leader award signifies a new responsibility or mandate from Universitas Gadjah Mada and the government. The mandate refers explicitly to how an academic leader can encourage the emergence of more young leaders for our shared future.
“For me, this award is a new responsibility from UGM and the government on how an academic leader can encourage more young leaders to emerge for our shared future in the health sector,” she stated.
Professor Ana conveyed that her achievement would not have been possible without the support of many people and that many parties were involved in supporting the execution of her contributions.
According to her, lecturers and researchers should be engaged in discussions and provided with facilities to support research execution, while the government should act as a matchmaker between researchers, practitioners, and the industry.
“I think we lecturers and researchers need to be engaged in dialogue, given challenges, and provided with facilities. What do we want to achieve in a given time? The government must also act as a matchmaker between researchers, practitioners, and industry,” Professor Ana said.
As for the professor’s contributions in the academic field, one of them includes mentoring, research, and publications in internationally reputable journals with Q1 and Q2 indices.
Additionally, Professor Ana has created three innovative products with significant benefits and impact in the medical world.
These innovative products are carbonate apatite (CHA)–based bone grafts, CHA-based hemostatic sponges for dental-maxillofacial surgery, and CHA-based hemostatic sponges for general surgery.
She explained that the driving force behind her contributions is to ease the burden borne by patients, whether financial burdens or difficulties in obtaining healthy tissue for autografts, a procedure that transfers healthy tissue to diseased tissue.
“Initially, of course, we tried to focus on developing our research according to the roadmap we had created. At some point, we realized that our research could ease patients’ burdens by replacing existing products in the market that were imported and expensive or through methods requiring healthy tissue transplantation to the diseased tissue,” Professor Ana explained.
The use of CHA active ingredients in her innovative products has made the hemostatic sponge from her research widely applicable in society and even surpasses imported medical products.
“Now, if we look at the medical device market in Indonesia, thank God, our hemostatic sponge product has proven superior with its CHA active ingredient and is widely used, surpassing and replacing imported products,” She said.
Professor Ana’s innovative products also have the advantages of being produced with advanced technology, are environmentally friendly, and are comparatively cheaper than imported products. Additionally, they have the potential for future regenerative therapies.
“Our innovations are produced with advanced, environmentally friendly technology, cheaper than imported medical devices, and have potential for future regenerative therapies,” she added.
Professor Ana faced many challenges and obstacles while researching how to create these innovative products. One of the challenges in conducting her research is that Indonesia’s research climate and system still need improvement to achieve greater benefits.
“The challenge is Indonesia’s research climate and system, which still need to be collectively built towards greater benefits. Researchers must also contribute to this by continuously advancing their research in their respective fields,” she said.
Author: Hanif
Editor: Gusti Grehenson