Driving Factors of Remanufacturing Adoption for Diagnostic Radiology Medical Devices in Thailand

Remanufacturing medical devices has become a key strategy for improving resource efficiency, lowering healthcare costs, and promoting a circular economy. Despite this, the integration of remanufactured medical devices into healthcare systems faces obstacles, primarily due to stakeholder acceptance issues. This study aims to create and validate a structural model that explains the factors influencing the adoption of remanufactured diagnostic radiology medical devices in Thailand. The model being studied includes several factors, such as economic considerations, cost, environmental policy, environmental friendliness, attitude, social influence, facilitating conditions, regulatory aspects, quality, and information. Data were collected from a group of 400 experts and professionals involved in medical device management and then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings reveal that the majority of the examined factors—including attitude, cost considerations, economic influences, governmental policy, environmental sustainability, social influence, quality, and information availability—exhibited statistically significant correlations with the adoption of medical devices. Conversely, the impact of enabling conditions and regulatory elements was found to be negligible. The model demonstrated a substantial capacity to elucidate the data, explaining 69.5% of the observed variance in adoption behavior (R² = 0.695). This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by offering empirical evidence regarding the key determinants that shape the adoption of remanufacturing practices in the medical device sector. Furthermore, the findings provide actionable and policy-relevant recommendations for stakeholders, including policymakers, manufacturers, and healthcare administrators, thus supporting the enduring incorporation of remanufactured medical devices within Thailand's healthcare system.