A common experience of many of the doctors involved in the forum was their work in
rural communities in the poorest parts of Thailand in the 1970s. At a time when there was
a drain of medical expertise abroad, these doctors committed themselves to serving as
directors at hospitals in rural areas, where they imagined their work extending well
beyond the walls of the hospital in areas ranging from community health insurance
schemes to community gardening to social development activities (on medical activism,
see Cohen and Purcal 1989; Bamber 1997)