Sedentary behavior and physical inactivity increase the risks of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, which contribute to approximately 70% of all-cause mortality among Thais. There is a misunderstanding that exercise in leisure time can n

Digital health is an umbrella term that includes all healthcare services that are provided by ICT. From one’s personal wearable devices to the use of big data and AI in healthcare come under digital health’ Under the umbrella of digital health technology, various sub-groups such as electronic

Over the past 5 years, HCUs (i.e., top 5% of the population) utilized ~50% of the annual health expenditure, confirming that even during the pandemic year of 2020, the HCU phenomenon still existed. The characteristics of HCU patients remained relatively the same from 2016 to 2020, in terms of pro

Thailand has successfully implemented economic evaluation to inform the inclusion of new, branded medicines within its National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM). This method can be used to assess the health value that new medicines will generate for patients after accounting for the health los

The National Health Security Office Working Group (NHSO WG) conducted structured, evidence-based deliberations to generate recommendations for the National Health Security Board on the kidney replacement therapy (KRT) policy. These are the proposed recommendations: To consider defining KRT p

Thailand spent 440,023 million baht on healthcare in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2022, of which 257,892 million baht went toward COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccination services. In addition to having higher hospital reserves than in the pre-pandemic period, private hospital

The Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) is a dedicated source of funding in England for increasing patient access to high-cost cancer drugs, with a fixed budget of £340 million per year, operating since 2016. The CDF follows the appraisal by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) whic

This policy brief provides a summary of a recent review of the definition of rare diseases, high cost and how HTA has been used in the case of rare diseases in seven countries. The countries were purposively selected based on them having established HTA policies and availability of resources in the

Because of their rarity, rare diseases are often treated with what the industry refers to as ‘orphan drugs’. These group of drugs are quite expensive because of the fewer number of people suffering from such sickness and usually provide low profit to manufacturer compared to other common drug for n

MEAs aim at early access to high-cost innovative medicines at pre-determined terms that can ensure the financial sustainability of healthcare systems. However, their successful adoption hinges on a consideration of various factors to address the unique challenges faced by different nations. The a