Pharmacy competencies in Thailand: Comparative analysis with ASEAN countries and other health professions.

INTRODUCTION

Thailand's pharmacy profession is undergoing rapid transformation driven by demographic, technological, and health-system changes. Updating national competency standards requires an understanding of regional and cross-professional benchmarks.

OBJECTIVE

To compare Thailand's pharmacy competency framework with those of ASEAN countries and other major health professions including medicine, dentistry, and nursing and to identify similarities, gaps, and strategic directions.

METHODS

A structured desk review of regional and international competency frameworks was conducted. Documents were identified from government and professional council websites and academic databases using predefined search terms (e.g., pharmacy competency, ASEAN standards, health professions).

INCLUSION CRITERIA: national-level competency frameworks; English or Thai; updated between 2000 and 2024. Data extraction involved domain mapping, coding of competency elements, and cross-framework comparison by two independent reviewers. Discrepancies were resolved by discussion.

RESULTS

Thailand's framework strongly emphasizes medication-related competencies but underrepresents evidence-based practice, digital literacy, cultural competence, and leadership compared with ASEAN peers. A summary matrix presents domain-by-domain comparison across countries and professions, and figures are referenced in-text with explanatory context.

CONCLUSION

Aligning Thailand's framework with ASEAN and global trends, particularly digital health, interprofessional collaboration, and lifelong learning will strengthen future pharmacy education and practice.