Luciana B. Sutanto : Closing the gap from small town to International
Dr. dr. Luciana B. Sutanto, MS, SpGK, or you can call her ‘Lucy’, was born in Yogyakarta on October 6th. Spent most of her childhood in Magelang, a small town in central Java, where everything within a reach, the green scenery of this town will make you don’t want to leave this place.
It’s a country-like town where neighbors greet you like you’re one of their own family. The feeling is nothing compare to the crowd- bad-traffic Jakarta, the city where She spent years taking her PhD and course in Intensive Care Consultant Program. ”It started accidentally as I was trying to help my friend to take this program (the Intensive Care Consultant Program), but when I learned more about this program I found it was very interesting which motivated me to join”.
Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Agung Sutanto, raised 3 children with disciplinary in education. The late Dr. Agung Sutanto, is a well known Obgyn and the founder of RSIA Gladiool Magelang. “My father taught us (Lucy and her two sibling, Evy and Doddy) various skills and sports. He never complained about our school grades, no matter how bad we got. But, mother always reminded us to study well and behave”. Lucy smiled.
Her father did an amazing role, all of his children became doctors, Doddy is famous as an Obgyn sub-specialized in fertilization, Evy is a general practitioner doctor, master in biomedical science and there is Lucy, who specialized in clinical nutrition.
When I asked her why she did not follow her father’s step to become an OBGYN? “after I finished my MD, I worked for a community health center in Temanggung, central Java. One of it's health program was Posyandu (a monthly clinic for children and pregnant women), by then I realized that nutrition care in the community was still neglected. One day at a clinic, a patient asked me about the nutrition of her child, it opened my mind that my knowledge in nutrition was still lacking. What concerned me most, many cases of weights of babies under 5 were increased but still below WHO's recommendation. After observation, I knew that their food consumption was not varied and unnourished, we need to integrate nutritionist with the primary care provider/pediatrician. This gap in care motivated me to study nutrition”.
She lives in 2 cities now, most of her daily routine was spent in Magelang, as director of RSIA Gladiool Magelang, a position she engage after years served as lecture in Department of Nutrition Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia, “Gladiool Mother’s & Child’s Hospital is a family business. After my father retired I am deeply engage as a Director to run the operations of the hospital and medical (nutrition) practice”. Beside her busy schedule in hospital, Lucy also was appointed to be the president of Indonesian Nutrition Association (INA). Base in Jakarta, the association focus on education, postgraduate training, practice, research and publication in Nutrition. Recently INA just launched their first scientific journal entitled World Nutrition Journal. “Indonesian Nutrition Association (INA) is the continuation of Nutri Indonesia Foundation (NIF). After the founder of NIF passed away, the members formalized the legal entity to INA. I was appointed as the president due to my specialization in nutrition and my experience within INA”. INA also held a National Symposium named Nutri Symposium, the symposium attended by more than 200 enthusiast participant from Health Care Providers (HCP) nationwide. The speakers (whom also good colleagues of Lucy) from Indonesia and abroad also join together to support this event, the event has been a success for years.
“I have been attending international nutrition meetings every year since I was a Master Degree student (as this article was written, Lucy already flew to Iran to attend the International conference in Mashhad, then continued to Netherlands for participating in ESPEN congress). By attending international meetings it helps me in peer network and learn latest trends & nutrition practice globally, it is important to have support from experts internationally for knowledge sharing and to support each other in developing nutrition activities”. And we can see the good relationship impact in this year Nutri Symposium, whereas speakers from US, Iran, Australia, Spain, Malaysia and Philippines all together share their expertise and knowledge on this 2 days symposium.
