GOVERNANCE MODEL DEVELOPMENT FOR HEALTH DATA STANDARD IN THAILAND: A CASE STUDY IN MEDICINES TERMINOLOGY

Abstract

Thailand does not have a well-designed governance system for health data standard and coding system. In this study, the governance of medicine terminology was selected as a case study. There is no single responsible organization to govern drug code and medicines terminology and also no mechanism for cooperation among stakeholders to develop and maintain medicines terminology. This leads to difficulties of drug information exchange between health service units and drug utilization monitoring and evaluation at the national level. This study aims to study and develop the governance model for health data standard in Thailand by using the medicines terminology as a case study This study proposed a medicines terminology governance model for Thailand by applying a participatory research design concept for the research methodology. The methodology was divided into three main steps. 1) Review the experience of advanced countries focus on the governance of health data standards and medicines terminology. 2) Review the current situation of Thailand by using multi-techniques of qualitative research. 3) Develop the governance model for medicines terminology, consult with the stakeholders, and evaluate by the experts with heuristics evaluation technique. This research proposed the governance model in three main areas, such as foundations, processes, tools and services. For the foundations, Thailand should set up the clear policy and set up the explicit plan for developing and using medicines terminology according to the health information technology development policy. The main organization should be legally established to be responsible for the governance of medicines terminology. The collaborative structure which comprises all stakeholders should be set up as both formal and informal structures. The processes including development, implementation, and maintenance, organization, roles and responsibility of all stakeholders for all processes are proposed in each process detail. Tools and services to support the user adoption are also proposed as supportive tools, knowledge services, and public services.