OBJECTIVES: Health Intervention and Technology Assessment program (HITAP), a newly established Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agency in Thailand, has tried to develop the systematic, transparent, and participatory mechanisms for HTA topic selection. An overall aim of this study was to describe quantitatively and qualitatively progression and findings from HTA topic selection process recently developed by HITAP. METHODS: The process involved potential users of HTA information namely 1) public health insurers; 2) national health policy makers; and 3) HITAP public funding organizations. In December 2006, these key players were invited to submit the topics needed to be assessed based on their considerations. The submitted topics were reviewed and prioritised by HITAP researchers in January 2007 using several preset criteria. Furthermore, a consultation workshop was conducted and the representatives from those organisations submitted the HTA topics provide justifications and prioritize their own list of top ten HTA topics needed to be assessed in 2007. Results from each organisation were analysed and the final list made by workshop participants were compared with the list made by HITAP researchers. RESULTS: Fifty one topics were submitted from ten organisations. However, only 29 distinct HTA topics were met inclusion criteria and then included in the priority setting process. Most topics were pharmaceuticals (51%), medical procedures (24%), medical devices (15%) and health policy (10%). At final, six out of ten topics selected by HITAP researchers were the same as those made by the representatives from public health authorities. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study illustrated the possibility to make HTA topic selection process to be systematic, transparent and participatory, which would eventually increase the usefulness and credibility of HTA.