VOLUME

In response to the rapidly changing occupational health environment, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS) has recognized a need to increase the quality and availability of occupational health services. This manuscript describes the evolution of an international health alliance, based on the “twinning” framework, to achieve a collaborative goal of developing an Occupational Health Center of Excellence (COE-OH) in Thailand. Through this alliance, the COE-OH has supported the development of programs in the areas of health promotion, training and research. The twinning framework was applied as the alliance moved through initiation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Project evaluation was viewed as an iterative process that informed next steps in the process as the collaboration developed. Initial products of this alliance include adaptation of the “Let’s Get Healthy!” health promotion and data collection tool for use as part of the Thai employee check-up; development and implementation of occupational health trainings for various levels of clinical staff; student exchange opportunities; and the creation of the infrastructure to support standing up of a fully human subjects compliant data repository for research. Three years into this alliance, the COE-OH has reached a point where feasibility has been established and the immense opportunities of future joint work have become apparent.