THAIMED (Thai Medical Device Technology Industry Association) established in 1989 by six founding members. THAIMED has a lot of success stories such as establishment of excellent contacts with the MDCD of the Thai FDA and providing assistance to members when Free Sales Certificates became a mandatory requirement for the importation of medical devices. Some other success story as lobbying of the Ministry of Finance for the reduction of import duties an correction of misclassifications of medical devices resulting in duties unreasonable high so that health services may be made available to the Thai people at lower cost.

During the two decades of existence, THAIMED has built a solid reputation as smooth-running association that brings together 68 local and international companies linked to the distribution of medical devices in Thailand.

THAIMED is run by Board of Directors who shall be elected by members and serve for a term of two (2) years. The Board of Directors has the duties to set up policies and carry on the Association’s business following the objectives and the by-laws of Association.

THAIMED is a non-profit organization, has no objectives to participate in politics but concern about the increasing of the amount of members because THAIMED would like to have more power to negotiate with the Thai FDA and try to represent the industrial sector. The main policies of THAIMED are:

	to create readiness and cooperation among its member companies.
	to coordinate with the government and private sector to develop the medical device industry.
	to support the government’s policy that will open free trade area for medical devices in the future to boost Thailand to be medical hub in region.

The seven board directors, including their secretaries, contributed 2 – 4 working days per month and did all the work especially to deal with the government agencies in the Ministry of Health at that time as THAIMED had neither an office nor any employees. Over the past years, the Board of Directors has an approval to reorganize the structure in the Association to improve administration for more convenience and up-to date with changes in business of globalization. Presently, THAIMED has its own office and 4 permanent staffs. In recent years, THAIMED has established contact with other government and private organizations such as Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Finance, the Medical Council of Thailand, the royal medical colleges, the Private Hospitals Association and 12 private associations related to healthcare products.

THAIMED has now 7 Board of Directors and 2 Sub-committees in different fields which are:

	Regulatory Affairs Sub-committee (RA Sub-committee)
	Reimbursement Sub-committee (RIM Sub-committee)

Furthermore, THAIMED has been publishing a quarterly e-Newsletter in website http://www.thaimed.co.th, organizing seminars for member companies, offering to members and non-members the service of compiling all relevant documents for the approval of the Free Sales Certificate (FSC) at the FDA. Under the new structure, THAIMED will act as the information centre about academic, activities with other organizations and keep members informed. This improvement is beneficial to members because it keeps members informed policy for practice which will impact to their medical devices business. And it makes the problems and suggestion presentation be more neutral. 

THAIMED always run organization under its old policy. It has also improved its operation for more stability and readiness to bear more duties according to the changes of economics and new technologies coming into Thailand. 

THAIMED realizes the importance of development of economics and responsibilities to social. When the government stipulates the regulations for the entrepreneur, THAIMED will act as a coordinator between its member companies and related government agencies. THAIMED has a number of significant achievements, since its inception as follows:

	being involved in drafting laws, revising laws of ministries, divisions or departments including draft of Medical Device Bill, Ministerial Announcements in the past years.
	representing members to attend the meetings concerning development of medical devices surveillance, domestic and international free trade area of medical devices.
	coordinating with government and private organizations to host international meetings such as 2nd Asian Harmonization Workshop Party (AHWP) Meeting, 3rd APEC-Funded Seminar on Harmonization of Medical Device Regulation, AHWP Workgroup 01 Meeting, 3rd ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality-Medical Device Product Working Group (ACCSQ-MDPWG) Meeting
	being membership and keeping in contact with international organizations who control regulatory affairs system of medical devices such as AHWP, GHTF, ADVAMED and EUCOMED etc. And THAIMED can collect various suggestions for regulatory affairs and has more power to negotiate.

As the government will be stricter in control medical device industry in comply with international standard, since the government has commitments from agreements to open free trade area for healthcare products including medical devices and medical services. Those commitments may effect direct to business of manufacturers and exporters and effect indirect to business of importers and distributors. Others regulations and laws has been implemented such as Product Liability Act of Office of the Consumer Protection Board, National Health Act of the National Health Commission office. THAIMED, therefore has the significant role to cooperate with its members to improve quality standard of service, management by developing business competence among changes and moves everyday.