An Opportunity and Limitation of the Medical Hub Management : The Case Study of Thammasat Integrated Medical Innovation Center (EECmd) and The Phuket Health Tourism Enhancement to the World-Class Health Tourism City Project.

Abstract

Thailand has the policy to elevate the country by adjusting the economy structures, aiming to add more products value to the 12 targeted industries which are promoted into the advanced technology. This objective will help to drive the future economy by developing investment promotion plans such as investment promotion measure, infrastructure and utility development plans. The Medical Hub is the one of the targeted industries which is related the fact that the development of the technology could maintain the quality of human life to live longer. Also, Thailand is the well-known destination of travelers and medical tourists due to the advantage of the price, good service ,and the quality of personnel, especially the alternative medicine and medical rehabilitation. This could be the comprehensive medical industry and might be the high trend of the future investment.

At present, the government, led by the Ministry of Public Health, has been announced the strategic plans to develop Thailand into an international medical hub. As the result of the above-mentioned strategies, they could contribute to the development of various related projects, including the development of comprehensive medical hub in the potential areas and give the service to the target groups same as the case study in Thammasat Integrated Medical Innovation Center (EECmd) and The Phuket Health Tourism Enhancement to the World-Class Health Tourism City Project.

 From the information above, this could lead to study the opportunities and limitations of the development of the medical hub by studying the information, theories, research papers and project guideline of both case studies to analyze the locations. Moreover, to study the government policies, laws and regulation to analyze the data and combined with in-depth interviews of the people who are in charged of medical hub, real estate investment, law and regulation to support the area development. The results of this study shows that the implementation of the medical hub need the factors to support such as the location and the infrastructure like the educational institution and the hospitals that provide the medical treatment, the area that could access to tourist attractions through health tourism. In addition, legal factors, such as investment promotion measures and urban planning are also the key factors. In the implementation of large-scale projects, cooperation between the government and the private sectors are necessary. This will help to drive entrepreneurs and governments sectors to invest in infrastructure and manage limitations to incentivize the investors and academic groups including the qualified personnel who are  supporting the service in the area.