Healthcare GEO
What hospitals can publish for AI search in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore
AI answers quote what hospitals publish, and the advertising rules still apply to every line. What to write instead of superlatives, comparisons and testimonials.
AI assistants answer patient questions by quoting and summarising what hospitals publish. A line from a service page can turn up in an answer about where to have a knee replaced, without the page around it. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, that line is still regulated advertising.
The rules follow the content, not the channel
None of the three countries regulates AI search separately. Their rules apply to what a hospital publishes, in any medium. Indonesia’s Minister of Health Regulation 1787/2010 covers publications as well as ads, and lists articles and features among them (Pasal 7). Malaysia’s Medicine Advertisements Board treats features and articles with promotional elements as advertising (guideline 2.6). Singapore defines an advertisement as information that promotes a licensed healthcare service, directly or indirectly (reg 2 of the Healthcare Services (Advertisement) Regulations 2021).
So a service page, a condition explainer, a doctor profile and the schema markup behind them are all in scope. The test for each line is whether it would pass as an ad.
Five habits that break the rules
“Leading”, “best”, “the only”
A line such as “Jakarta’s leading cardiac centre” breaks Indonesia’s ban on superlatives and claims to be the only one (Pasal 5(e)) and Singapore’s ban on laudatory statements (reg 5(1)(e)). Malaysia requires website copy to be informative and simple, without laudatory remarks (guideline 6.8).
Write what the claim stands in for. “A cardiac centre with a catheterisation laboratory open 24 hours” tells a patient more, and a regulator can check it.
Comparisons with other hospitals
“Shorter waiting times than other private hospitals” compares service quality with other providers, which all three countries ban: Pasal 5(d) in Indonesia, guideline 5.1 in Malaysia, reg 5(1)(c) in Singapore. Publish your own figure with its source and date, and leave the comparison out. In Malaysia, statistical claims should rest on Malaysian data where it exists (MAB 5/2011).
Patient stories as proof
Testimonials are where the three countries differ most. Indonesia bans testimonials in ads and mass-media publications (Pasal 5(n)). Malaysia lets patients talk about the premises, such as cleanliness and staff hospitality, but not about treatment or a doctor’s skill (guideline 4.5). Singapore allows a review only if the patient gave it directly to the provider, unpaid and unedited, and only on the provider’s own premises, website or social accounts (reg 14).
Copying Google reviews onto a Singapore hospital’s website fails that last test twice: the reviews were not given directly to the hospital, and putting them on the site reproduces them.
Booking prompts inside explainers
A page explaining knee osteoarthritis that ends with “book your consultation today” turns education into promotion. Singapore bans information presented in a way that amounts to soliciting or encouraging use of a service (reg 5(1)(g)). Indonesia bans information that encourages people to use the facility’s health workers (Pasal 5(l)). In Malaysia, an educational article that steers readers to the author’s practice loses its exemption from approval (guideline 3.4.3). Keep explainers educational, and leave appointments to the contact page.
Before-and-after photos
Malaysia’s Medicine Advertisements Board bans them (MAB 2/2019). Singapore bans before-and-after and after-only images (reg 5(1)(d)), though a doctor can still show them to a patient during a consultation. Indonesia’s regulation does not name them, but it bans creating unrealistic expectations (Pasal 5(c)), and a before-and-after photo is hard to square with that.
What you can write
Facts a patient can use and a regulator can check:
- the services and procedures offered, named plainly
- opening hours, location and how to reach the hospital
- the hospital’s doctors and their specialties, for information. Malaysia allows names, qualifications and specialties (guideline 4.2). Indonesia bars ads from using academic titles and professional designations (Pasal 5(o)), so confirm with a local adviser how a doctor listing should read there.
- prices, where the hospital publishes them, without discounts in Indonesia (Pasal 5(m)) or free services in Malaysia (guideline 7.1.3)
- accreditations, within each country’s limits: the name, the date and a picture in Malaysia (guideline 3.4.4); in Singapore, only on the hospital’s own website, premises or social accounts, and only for honours that recognise technical standards (reg 13)
- explanations of conditions and treatments that follow the evidence and cite it, which Indonesia requires of every ad and publication (Pasal 4(1))
Short factual statements like these are also hard to quote out of context.
The same rules cover schema markup, page titles and meta descriptions. Bagus Prasetio explains what to mark up and what to leave off in Schema markup for hospitals and clinics.
Content for patients in another country
Medical travel content has to satisfy two sets of rules. Indonesia bans advertising health services at facilities located outside Indonesia (Pasal 5(g)), which covers a Malaysian or Singaporean hospital’s campaign aimed at Indonesian patients. The hospital’s home rules still apply wherever the content can be seen at home. Malaysia’s guideline says so for ads that people in Malaysia can see online (9.1), and Singapore’s Ministry of Health says a hospital’s website is covered even when it targets foreign patients. Get legal advice in the patient’s country before a campaign runs.
A check before anything goes live
- Can we prove every factual claim with a document we could hand to a regulator?
- Does any line praise the hospital, rank it, or compare it with another provider?
- Is there a testimonial, review or endorsement, and does the country allow it in this form?
- Does an educational page push readers to book?
- In Malaysia, does the piece promote a service, and if so, has the Medicine Advertisements Board approved it?
- Will patients in another country see it, and has someone checked their rules?
The full rules for all three countries, with the article or section behind each point and links to the official texts, are in GTMLab’s guide to healthcare advertising rules in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It is general information, not legal advice.