Thailand Future Foundation (TFF) has conducted the Foresight process as part of the study to develop and consolidate data and recommendation in the preparation of the Fifth National Health Security Office (NHSO) Action Plan (2023-2027) under the collaboration with the National Health Security Office (NHSO), Thailand Policy Lab and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP Thailand) during May and July 2022. The goal of this study is to support the development of the national policy and strategy toward the change in the health sector in the coming future as well as an access to the quality health service in Thailand.
Due to the ongoing change at the Health organisational level, national and the global level, an introduction of the new tool and approach in the area of future studies is conducted as part of policy preparation for governmental agencies. Foresight is a systematic process to expand the scope, explore and prepare to serve the future challenges. This would ultimately lead to the changes in the major scale as well as to support the policy maker in making decisions and develop the strategic policy under the potential unpredictable changing circumstances.
Foresight methodology to explore the future megatrends of the National Health Security in Thailand is consisted of 5 processes which are 1) future vision 2) horizon scanning 3) high impact ranking 4) megatrend development and 5) future implication. The high-impact trend signals lead to the development of the short- to medium-term future prospects or megatrend to see the next direction of the healthcare service system as well as its impact toward the future of Thai health security system over time. Five megatrends are: 1) Internet of Health 2) Human Dynamic for Well-being 3) An Era of New Risk Frontiers 4) People Centric Prosumer and 5) Decentralized financing model.
The future implication toward megatrend has catalysed the preparation and development to future changes that may affect both opportunities and challenges for the health system in Thailand, especially the policy related to the preparation of the national health security system. This is also in line with the international framework to support a progress of achieving universal health coverage with an aim of ensuring people’s good health as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
