Doctor–patient relationship strength’s impact in an online healthcare community

Guo, Xitong; Guo, Xitong; Zhang, Xiaofei; Vogel, Doug

doi:10.1080/02681102.2017.1283287

Cited by 76 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…There is no isolated node, and the doctors were closely connected. It is different from previous research conclusions [6,48], which may be due to the different nature and content of the selected e-health community. According to the research data in this paper, information is easily spread in the e-health community.…”

Section: Close Communication Of Information In the E-health Communitycontrasting

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of Network Structure and Doctor Behaviors in E-Health Communities from a Social-Capital Perspective

2020

IJERPH

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In tandem with internet development and widespread social media use, e-health communities have begun to emerge in recent years. These communities allow doctors to access forums anywhere, anytime, seek or exchange medical information online, find literature, and so on. This is convenient and can solve some problems for doctors while also promoting doctor communication. This study collected and collated 102 doctors in the "Lilac Forum" and used social network tools to quantify the overall network density, centrality, core-periphery structure, and structural hole indicators of doctors' information exchange from a social-capital perspective. The results showed that the frequency of interaction between doctors differed because of differences in the identities and participation of doctors in the e-health community. The density of the doctors' information dissemination network (0.228) and network cohesion (0.610) were relatively high. Thus, the doctors were more closely connected, and information was easily spread. At the same time, doctors with higher professional titles had obvious location characteristics, familiarity and trust, and high levels of reciprocity. They could obtain redundant information in the network and were more likely to influence the behavior of other doctors. This study's findings provide support for improving information exchange among doctors in e-health communities and improving the service levels of the platforms.institutions, and medical practitioners [7]. Forums such as Lilac (www.dxy.cn/bbs) and Love Love Doctor (bbs.iiyi.com/) provide medical information and services to many doctors. However, there are still relatively few active users in medical forums [8], which means the acceptance level of e-health communities is still lacking. Therefore, it is important to explore the information exchange behaviors of doctors in such communities to promote the service level of e-health communities.The e-health community is an electronic information platform where doctors can exchange academic, basic medical, and other information. In e-health communities, doctors can access forums anywhere, anytime, seek or exchange medical information, find literature, and so on. At the same time, doctors can also post comments and questions on the forum and communicate with others. This is convenient and can solve some problems for doctors. If a doctor's area lacks the advanced medical resources and medical resources, and a patient requires advanced treatment, the doctor can access relevant advanced medical information in a forum. Then, the patient can be better prepared for the advanced treatment before the referral, which can increase cure rates [9]. E-health communities also can break the limitations of time and space and help doctors obtain professional knowledge from other doctors at different levels, which can reduce imbalances in medical resources [10]. Although such advantages indicate that e-health communities have good prospects, some shortcomings still exist. First, users of the Lilac forum are independent...

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Section: Close Communication Of Information In the E-health Communitycontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Doctors mainly diagnose and treat through discussion, notification, and interpretation [3][4][5]. Today, doctors' demands for medical information have increased, and patients are likewise eager to get more information and opportunities [6]. With the support of policies, many e-health communities have emerged in recent years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Network Structure and Doctor Behaviors in E-Health Communities from a Social-Capital Perspective

2020

IJERPH

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“…Professional capital is a special, rare, enduring, and valuable type of capital associated with social professionals because it involves power advantages and professional commitment [45]. In the social communication between doctors and patients, the exchange resources of doctors are their professional capital, and reflect their status in the social structure and their decision-making behavior [46].…”

Section: Diversity and Team Performance: The Social Categorization Viewmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Manage Diversity and Enhance Team Performance: Evidence from Online Doctor Teams in China

Liu

Chen

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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(1) Background: Traditional one-to-one online consultations with doctors often fail to provide timely and accurate treatment plans; consequently, creating cross-hospital and cross-regional teams has become a new pattern for doctors aiming to offer Internet medical services. Because the online doctor team is a new virtual organizational model, it remains to be explained and investigated. (2) Methods: Combining the information processing view and the social categorization view, this study takes the perspective of team diversity and empirically investigates the effect of team diversity on team performance. We consider four kinds of team diversity, including status capital diversity, decision capital diversity, online reputation diversity, and professional knowledge diversity, and we investigate how team composition from the diversity perspective affects online doctor team performance and how leader reputation moderates the effect of team diversity on team performance. We use secondary data from a leading online medical consultation platform in China (Good Doctor), and our research data include 1568 teams with a total of 5481 doctors. (3) Results: The results show that status capital diversity and decision capital diversity negatively affect team performance; diversity in terms of online reputation and professional knowledge positively affect team performance; and leader reputation moderates the impact of status capital diversity and online reputation on team performance. (4) Conclusions: Our study offers management suggestions on how to form a high-performance doctor team and provides advice for the future development of online doctor teams.

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“…In addition, with the development of information communication technology, online medical consultations are becoming more and more popular [ 27 , 33 ], allowing doctors to answer patients' questions online. It should be noted that since the doctor-patient relationship is one of the most complex among all interpersonal relationships [ 34 ], it is not straightforward to determine whether doctor recommendations should be categorized as strong-tie or weak-tie sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Types of Information Sources Used When Choosing Doctors: Observational Study in an Online Health Care Community

Zhang¹,

Wang²,

Chiu³

et al. 2020

J Med Internet Res

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Background Patients attempt to make appropriate decisions based on their own knowledge when choosing a doctor. In this process, the first question usually faced is that of how to obtain useful and relevant information. This study investigated the types of information sources that are used widely by patients in choosing a doctor and identified ways in which the preferred sources differ in various situations. Objective This study aims to address the following questions: (1) What is the proportion in which each of the various information sources is used? (2) How does the information source preferred by patients in choosing a doctor change when there is a difference in the difficulty of medical decision making, in the level of the hospital, or in a rural versus urban situation? (3) How do information sources used by patients differ when they choose doctors with different specialties? Methods This study overcomes a major limitation in the use of the survey technique by employing data from the Good Doctor website, which is now China's leading online health care community, data which are objective and can be obtained relatively easily and frequently. Multinomial logistic regression models were applied to examine whether the proportion of use of these information sources changes in different situations. We then used visual analysis to explore the question of which type of information source patients prefer to use when they seek medical assistance from doctors with different specialties. Results The 3 main information sources were online reviews (OR), family and friend recommendations (FR), and doctor recommendations (DR), with proportions of use of 32.93% (559,345/1,698,666), 23.68% (402,322/1,698,666), and 17.48% (296,912/1,698,666), respectively. Difficulty in medical decision making, the hospital level, and rural-urban differences were significantly associated with patients’ preferred information sources for choosing doctors. Further, the sources of information that patients prefer to use were found to vary when they looked for doctors with different medical specialties. Conclusions Patients are less likely to use online reviews when medical decisions are more difficult or when the provider is not a tertiary hospital, the former situation leading to a greater use of online reviews and the latter to a greater use of family and friend recommendations. In addition, patients in large cities are more likely to use information from online reviews than family and friend recommendations. Among different medical specialties, for those in which personal privacy is a concern, online reviews are the most common source. For those related to children, patients are more likely to refer to family and friend recommendations, and for those related to surgery, they value doctor recommendations more highly. Our results can not only contribute to aiding government efforts to further promote the dissemination of health care information but may also help health care industry managers develop better marketing strategies.

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Doctor–patient relationship strength’s impact in an online healthcare community

Cited by 76 publications

References 47 publications

Analysis of Network Structure and Doctor Behaviors in E-Health Communities from a Social-Capital Perspective

Analysis of Network Structure and Doctor Behaviors in E-Health Communities from a Social-Capital Perspective

How to Manage Diversity and Enhance Team Performance: Evidence from Online Doctor Teams in China

Exploring Types of Information Sources Used When Choosing Doctors: Observational Study in an Online Health Care Community

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