The study finds that it is the information seeking effectiveness rather than the social support which affects patient's perceived empathy in online health communities run by HCOs. The results indicate that HCOs that provide online health communities for their patients need to focus more on developing tools that will make information seeking more effective and efficient.
An understanding of the four models of consumer value cocreation can help HCOs adopt appropriate strategies and practices to embrace consumers as partners in the development and delivery of innovative health care products and services.
The use of mobile technology and mobile apps has become pervasive in our daily lives for completing a variety of daily tasks. Mobile health (mHealth) apps can provide an accessible platform for self-management among breast cancer (BC) survivors, as they recover from not just the intensive cancer treatments, but also their associated side-effects. They also offer a means to learn about survivorship topics and connect with peer survivors online, irrespective of their geographical location. This study is an attempt to assess the availability and characterize the self-management features of free mobile apps for breast cancer survivors on the Google Play (Android) and Apple App Store (iOS). Out of 249 such apps for the Android, only eight satisfied initial criteria, while only one of 174 iOS apps that met inclusion criteria was included for further analysis. A content analysis of the nine apps that met inclusion criteria was conducted to assess the inclusion of the following mHealth self-management features derived from the Chronic Care Model: symptom tracking; survivorship education; information-sharing with family and/or caregivers; scheduling follow-up visits; personal alerts and reminders; and social networking. Survivorship education was found to be the most common self-management feature among the apps reviewed, followed by social networking. The results of this study highlight the dearth of available mHealth resources for BC survivors. Future efforts in app development should involve survivors and healthcare providers to ensure comprehensive resources that address their unmet needs are made more accessible.
Undiagnosed and untreated depressive disorders have become a serious public health issue and it is prevalent among people of all ages, gender and race. Social media sites, such as Twitter, have become a major venue for people to express/disclose their thoughts and feelings. The tweets from these micro-blogging sites could be used to screen for and potentially detect depression. To date, studies in this area have focused on developing and validating the terms and vocabulary used by users with depression, or evaluating tweets related to depression by using terms that are synonymous with depression. This approach has not produced reliable findings. In this study, we depart from this approach and instead, base our analysis on research on depressive disorders, which indicates the critical significance of repetitive thoughts and ruminating behavior of people with depression. The current study and findings hold important implications for research on depression, social media, and public health informatics.
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