The Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) is an annual international conference at Thailand, focusing on policy-related health issues of global significance, is hosted by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation, Mahidol University and other global partners.  It is an international policy forum for stakeholders to discuss and learn from international experience in dealing withimportant global health issues, and use conference outcomes for policy advocacy.

The Conference 2016 was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 26 -31 January 2016, titled “Priority setting for Universal Health Coverage”. Objectives of the Conference include:
1. To advocate and build momentum on evidence-informed priority setting and policy decisions to achieve UHC goals;
2. To advocate for the global movement and collaborations to strengthen the priority setting of health interventions and technology in the long-term;
3. To share knowledge, experience, and viewpoints on health-related priority setting among organizations and countries; and
4. To build capacity of policymakers and respective stakeholders for development and introduction of contextually-relevant priority setting mechanisms in support of UHC
Delegates of the Conference come from 63 countries with 847 people in total, including policymakers, senior officers, and staff of national bodies that are responsible for the decisions of resource allocation in UHC, including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health and other relevant agencies, HTA agencies, civil society organizations, international organizations and development partners, academic institutes, and industry. Regarding Vietnam delegation, on behalf of Vietnam’s Ministry of Health, Health Strategy and Policy Institute delegates participated in the Conference, leading by Dr. Tran Thi Mai Oanh, Director of the Institute.

Within the Conference programs, Dr. Mai Oanh was invited to be a member of panelist for a section titled “Prioritising Research to Deliver Evidence for UHC: How Can Policy Makers Shape the Research Agenda to What They and Their Populations Need”. The section has attracted participation and discussion ofdelegations from different countries. Besides, a researcher of the Institute was also a member of Rapporteur team, who were responsible for synthesize and report on sessions’ content in the Conference.

The Conference has ended after 6 days, with main conclusion as follows:
• Priority setting is an essential enabling process for UHC
• Priority setting processes make the decisions about rationing explicit, and based on evidence, values and interests
• The process of assessment and appraisal is as important as the evidence
• To deliver these priorities we need strong health systems; but priority setting can contribute to this strengthening
• Achieving UHC will require the health system to deliver on priorities:  requires capacity, system design and supporting interventions
 

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