From 1997 to 2006, Sedyaningsih held an important position at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, as a technical adviser in the department of communicable disease surveillance and response.

Sedyaningsih was given notable credit by her fellow researchers for her courage in having helped devise the GISAID sharing mechanism,[2] playing a constructive role in global health.

[4] She succeeded her former supporter and boss Siti Fadillah Supari who had initially expressed her disappointment over the Sedyaningsih's appointment as her replacement.

On 26 April 2012, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited her in the hospital, she tendered her resignation as Minister of Health due to ill-health.

[10] Sedyaningsih grew up in Jakarta and went to a public elementary school, later on called as SD Negeri Merdeka Timur.