Dr. Pongthep Wongwatcharapaiboon

Dr. Pongthep Wongwatcharapaiboon is one of Thailand’s skilled epidemiologists and champion for health promotion.

Prior to joining ThaiHealth, Dr. Pongthep served as an administrator and specialized physician at Nan Hospital. Among his successful initiatives include setting up a quit smoking clinic at Nan Hospital, promoting Nan Municipality as a safe global community and spearheading alcohol-free social events. During COVID- 19 pandemic, he served in the investigation and spokesperson teams for the national pandemic management. He was awarded the John Snow Award for his epidemiology research in 1998 by US CDC and the Outstanding Epidemiologist Physician Award by the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand in 2009. He also received the Distinguished Civil Servant Award of Nan Province in 2020. By 2022, he joined ThaiHealth as the Director of the Health System Development, supporting health promotion through healthcare service systems. Since January 2024, he has been appointed as the CEO of ThaiHealth.

As the CEO of ThaiHealth, Dr. Pongthep set forth a vision of the organization towards being the “national reference for health promotion.” Additionally, he aimsto empower ThaiHealth to innovate and deliver outcomes with efficiency and transparency, strong capability and enhance ThaiHealth’s contribution on health and well-being literacy. On his education background, Dr.Pongthep received his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University. Additionally, he underwent training in Preventive Medicine (Epidemiology) through the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) under the Ministry of Public Health and obtained a certificate in Preventive Medicine (Epidemiology) from the Medical Council of Thailand. Dr. Pongthep is also a speaker at Beyond Activ Asia in Bangkok, Thailand.