Christian Suharlim

His health policy career began in 2011, when Suharlim served as a physician in the rural area of Panguragan, Indonesia. While there, he led two projects which addressed the health needs of two communities. By revitalizing a long-neglected disaster management program, Suharlim successfully prepared Panguragan region (population: 52,537) for the heavy flood of January 2012. As a result, 960 victims were quickly relocated to a centralized shelter where trained medical personnel were ready to address their health problems. Also, by analyzing Panguragan's tuberculosis and leprosy program implementation, Suharlim found that local public health officers were not screening households for active cases according to Indonesia's national healthcare guideline. He re-allocated financial incentives to be received after officers conducted their household contact screening rather than before, and raised the case-finding rate by 30%, increasing the number of patients treated and reducing the rate of disease transmission.