Putu Deddy Suhartawan

President Director & CEO

Innoquest Indonesia (Part of Pathology Asia Holdings)

Healthcare

Indonesia

⭐ Leaders at a Glance

Leaders at a Glance

Putu Deddy Suhartawan is the President Director and CEO of Innoquest Indonesia, part of Pathology Asia Holdings. With nearly two decades of experience in Indonesia’s healthcare sector, he has worked across hospital development, acquisitions and medical tourism. He is focused on expanding access to diagnostic expertise through laboratory management partnerships, combining collaboration and operational discipline to strengthen healthcare delivery.

Name: Putu Deddy Suhartawan
Designation: President Director & CEO
Company: Innoquest Indonesia (Part of Pathology Asia Holdings)
Industry: Healthcare
Country: Indonesia

Putu Deddy Suhartawan-Most Influential CEOs from Asia 2026

Healthcare expansion is not always about building more. Sometimes, the bigger opportunity lies in making existing capabilities work better together. This business philosophy has taken shape over Putu Deddy Suhartawan’s nearly two decades in Indonesia’s healthcare sector, spanning hospital development, acquisitions, medical tourism, and now diagnostics.

As President Director and CEO of Innoquest Indonesia (Part of Pathology Asia Holdings), Deddy is applying that experience to a challenge with implications beyond business growth. Through laboratory management partnerships, he is helping healthcare facilities access diagnostic expertise without building every capability independently. During his first year as CEO, Innoquest’s laboratory management partnerships grew from four facilities to eighteen, reflecting the potential of a model built on collaboration and operational discipline.

His approach combines commercial judgment with a clear understanding of healthcare’s practical demands. In his exclusive conversation with Portfolio Magazine, Deddy discusses the decisions behind his growth strategy and how partnerships can help shape a more accessible, sustainable healthcare network across Indonesia.

You have worked across hospital development, strategy, and diagnostics. What has stayed with you throughout that journey?

Growing up in Bali as the eldest son in a Balinese family, I learned early that responsibility often means looking after others before yourself. I carried that into my career, although I understood its significance more clearly after entering healthcare. Working in sales and marketing taught me that healthcare is never simply about selling a service. Families are placing their trust in you when someone they love needs care.

Developing hospitals later brought that responsibility into sharper focus. Every decision, from patient flow to the people you recruit, influences the experience patients eventually receive. During the pandemic, while working in medical tourism, I kept returning to a question that has stayed with me since. Why should Indonesians feel they must travel abroad to find healthcare they trust?

Expanding healthcare access can be commercially challenging. How do you balance patient needs with business sustainability?

Expanding beyond Jakarta into Makassar and Surabaya brought that tension into focus. Patients in these regions were sometimes referred to Jakarta or overseas for tests that should be available closer to home. The need was clear, but establishing standalone laboratories everywhere would have required significant capital, specialised staff, and dependable logistics.

We decided to work with established local hospitals instead, including Ratulangi Medical Centre in Makassar. Partnerships allowed us to extend diagnostic capabilities while aligning operations and quality standards with our wider network. We also introduced health screening programmes to encourage earlier detection.

“Patient need determines whether we go. Operational and financial discipline determine how we go.”

A service that cannot sustain itself will eventually let down the very patients it was created to serve.

You have worked on acquisitions, hospital development, and diagnostic partnerships. What makes healthcare growth sustainable?

I have found that building ecosystems before building assets can be a more effective approach. Healthcare requires substantial investment, and organisations can become focused on acquiring equipment or opening facilities without asking whether existing capabilities could be connected more effectively.

At the Indonesia Medical Tourism Board, we brought together more than 70 healthcare providers and 50 tourism partners. The aim was to help patients discover and access care already available in Indonesia. The initiative exceeded its 2021 revenue target by around 70%.

At Innoquest, the same principle informs our laboratory management partnerships. We operate hospital laboratories using established systems, expertise, and trained teams, allowing hospitals to strengthen diagnostic services without bearing the full investment. Growth becomes more meaningful when every partner brings a capability that improves the overall patient experience.

What is one aspect of healthcare performance that outsiders tend to underestimate?

People often judge a hospital by its specialists, equipment, or reception area. Much of its performance, however, depends on work patients never see. Laboratories must process samples reliably, procurement teams must prevent reagent shortages, and scheduling teams must ensure departments are properly staffed.

A laboratory result may influence a clinical decision, but the systems behind that result rarely receive the same attention as the technology itself. Consistency depends on people following the right processes every day, even when nobody notices.

Leaders need to provide frontline teams with proper training, dependable systems, and recognition. Strategy and capital matter, but neither can compensate for operational weaknesses that repeatedly affect patient care.

What industry practice would you like healthcare leaders to rethink?

I would question the assumption that every hospital must own and operate every service itself. I have seen hospitals invest heavily in laboratory equipment that operates below capacity, while struggling to retain specialised staff or offer advanced testing.

A capable diagnostic partner can bring scale, expertise, and access to technologies that may be difficult for an individual hospital to sustain. The hospital can then concentrate on clinical care while patients benefit from stronger diagnostic capabilities.

The same thinking applies to the wider patient journey. Services should feel connected from the patient’s perspective, even when several organisations deliver them. Healthcare leaders do not have to build everything themselves. They need to understand which capabilities they must own, which they can access through partnerships, and how to make the complete experience work reliably.