A Soft System Methodology (SSM) has been used to analyse the issues facing the public healthcare sector in Thailand.
New research has been performed to better understand the Thai public healthcare sector and the Thai medical devices industry. The research captured both the direct and latent requirements of all the stakeholders in order to define strategic directions and products which leverage the existing skills and capabilities of Thai industry.
Instead of choosing a "hard system" approach which treats a system as an ontological entity, i.e. as a set of fixed items which exist in their real world form, a "soft system" approach was used which treats the system instead in an epistemological manner, i.e. as a mental construct used for purposes of human communication and understanding. Significant among the research findings was evidence that non-surgical hospital equipments and basic rehabilitation devices held the highest potential for new business development which improved Thai public healthcare. Ariyatum, B., Holland, R., Sirisalee, P, and Prommin, D. 2009, Identifying Strategic Directions for Design Development of General Hospital Equipment for Thailand, The Design Journal, Volume 12, Number 1, March, pp. 69-93(25)