Dr. Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih was appointed as the Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia in October 2009 by President Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono and joined his cabinet which is called the Second Unified Indonesia Cabinet.  One of the goals during her term as the Minister of Health (2009-2014) is to achieve universal coverage in social health insurance.  She shares the vision of the Ministry of Health: A self-sufficient healthy community, within a just quality health care system and has introduced 5 taglines of the Indonesian Health Development, namely: pro people, inclusive, responsive, effective, and clean. Under her leadership the Ministry of Health is at present undergoing a public health reform.

She began her career in 1979 as clinician in the Jakarta Pertamina Hospital. She joined the public health service in 1980 and worked in remote area as the Head of Waipare Health Center in East Nusa Tenggara Province for three years. In 1983, she moved to Jakarta and continued working in the public health service with the Jakarta Provincial Health Office. After completing her doctorate degree in Social Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in 1997, she joined the National Institute of Health Research and Development (NIHRD) of the Ministry of Health. She worked as a researcher in the Center of Disease Control Research and Program Development, NIHRD for more than a decade. For 6 months in 2001, she spent her time working with WHO HQ in Geneva, Switzerland. She was appointed as the Director of the Center of Biomedical Research and Program Development, NIHRD in 2007.

During her career, she published more than 50 scientific publications on communicable diseases and epidemiology in national and international journals and participated in various national and international scientific meetings.