The International Health Policy Program, Thailand (IHPP) is a semi-autonomous research organization aiming at enhancing health policy research. IHPP has identified and analysed emerging important issues in health systems by using tools in health economics and health policy analyses. IHPP also focuses on the policy process and the utility of research findings, requiring researchers to work closely with domestic and international stakeholders in each particular field. IHPP has carried out project co-operations with international key partners, such as AAAH, CRESH, NHA, and NASA. In addition, Much of IHPP’s research is coordinated with various collaborators, such as World Health Organization, the World Bank, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, several Thai universities and other policy and research organizations throughout the country. Relevant recent examples include a Public consultation for policy options to ration renal replacement therapy under the universal health coverage scheme in Thailand (RRT Phase III); and Equity in health care finance and health service utilization before and after universal coverage in Thailand.
Researchers
Viroj Tangcharoensathien (viroj@ihpp.thaigov.net)
Viroj Tangcharoensathien, MD, PhD, director of the IHPP and senior researcher, has a fifteen year research experience in health systems and health policy and translating research into policy. He has extensive work experiences in the Region.
Supon Limwattananon (supon@ihpp.thaigov.net)
Supon Limwattananon, BSc Pharm, PhD, is a Senior researcher, with experience in quantitative analysis of variations in health care utilization and expenditure across major public health insurance schemes. He is also involved in analysis of health care equity, and catastrophic and poverty impacts of out-of-pocket health payments.
Phusit Prakongsai (phusit@ihpp.thaigov.net)
Phusit Prakongsai, MD, Ph.D. candidate, has an interest in the impact evaluation of universal healthcare coverage on equity. Currently, he is a PhD student in Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on the topic “Equity in health care financing and health service utilization before and after universal coverage in Thailand”.
Piya Hanvoravongchai (Piya.Hanvoravongchai@lshtm.ac.uk)
Piya Hanvoravongchai, MD, Ph.D candidate. He holds an MSc in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is currently a doctoral candidate in health economics at Harvard School of Public Health, with extensive work experience in Thailand and abroad. At the World Health Organization in Geneva in 2000-2002, he worked as a Global Health Leadership Fellow and a scientist on health financing policy and health system performance assessment in the Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster. Between 2003-2006, he was a research associate at the Global Equity Initiative, Harvard University. His particular interest is in the areas of health systems, health economics, and international health policy
Selected publications
Limwattananon S, Tangcharoensathien V, Prakongsai P. Catastrophic and poverty impacts of health payments: results from national household surveys in Thailand. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2007;85(8):600–606.
Towse, A, A Mills, V Tangcharoensathien, Learning from Thailand’s health reforms, British Medical Journal, 2004, 328, 103-105.
Suraratdecha C, Saithanu S, Tangcharoensathien V. Is universal coverage a solution for disparities in health care? Findings from three low-income provinces of Thailand. Health Policy. 2005 Sep 8;73(3):272-84.
Tangcharoensathien V., Laixuthai A., Vasavit J. et al. National Health Accounts Development: Lessons From Thailand. Health Policy and Planning 1999;14(4):342-353.