•Team diversity should be considered when building online physician teams.•Reputation diversity and experience diversity help increase team performance.•Star physicians weaken the influence of ...reputation diversity on team performance.•Star physicians strengthen the influence of experience diversity on team performance.
With the increasing popularity of the Internet, people progressively seek health advice through online health communities (OHCs). Physician in OHCs are often self-organized into teams to provide on-demand health services which can meet patients’ diverse needs and attract patients to buy their services. Although many prior studies have investigated OHC physician performance at the individual level, little research exists on team level performance. To fill that gap, this paper analyzes whether the team diversity of online physician teams influence team performance in OHCs in specific the context of China according to the signaling theory. Using data from one of the most popular OHCs in China, we employ fixed-effect models to evaluate the effect of team diversity of online medical teams on team performance from the perspective of signal transmission. The results indicate that the reputation diversity and experience diversity of physicians in OHC teams exert positive influences on team performance. Meanwhile, whether an OHC team has star physicians has different moderating effects on the relationship between two kinds of team diversity and team performance. Specifically, the existence of star physicians will increase the positive influences of experience diversity, but weaken the positive effect of reputation diversity on team performance. Our results support the need for considering the team diversity as a potential solution to improve the performance of online medical teams in Chinese OHCs.
The study explores how online health communities produce social value by uniting individuals under a common purpose, to advance healthcare in post‐conflict states. We selected MedicineAfrica – a ...digital platform known for creating social value by providing medical education in regions with under‐resourced healthcare systems – and drew on multiple data collection methods. We found that it is through a unique form of digital health activism that social value is created in this context. Drawing on a sociological understanding of digital health activism, we make the following contributions: First, we identify three types of non‐economic, social value: cognitive, professional and epistemic. Second, we indicate that social value creation is enabled by three emergent forms of digital health activism (ie, philanthropic, moral and reciprocal activity). Third, we elicit three enabling mechanisms explaining how these forms of activism are technically and socially afforded through the platform's connective capacity and emerging collective practices in tandem with its members' growing commitment. Our article contributes to the growing IS literature on digital activism by offering a framework that elucidates how digital health activism relates to social value creation. The article provides practical implications as to how platforms can enable sustainable online (health) communities.
This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study conducted in Italy about a peculiar online health community named #TERAPIADOMICILIARECOVID19 (#TDC19), which, since April 2020, has assisted ...people with COVID-19 with early-at-home therapy delivered by volunteer doctors, free of charge for patients. The aim of the paper was to analyse patients' motivations and strategies when negotiating risk in the context of this choice. Findings showed that patients' choices were the outcome of a process that forms an entangled ecology of care involving several dimensions, crossing micro, meso and macro levels: a) the process of knowledge-building by assessing mass-media, ascertaining the best protocol and recalling previous experiences with similar diseases; b) the experience of feeling abandoned by general practitioners (GPs) and healthcare institutions; c) the positive encounter with #TDC19's posts of gratitude written by people who were cured by #TDC19 doctors. In the end, patients' choice was not a leap of faith; they negotiated and balanced out the perceived risks associated with COVID-19 and with the possible available choices (GPs, do-it-yourself, #TDC19-doctors) based on a strategy that chiefly encompassed a blend of rational and in-between logics.
•Individual group joining behavior positively affects individual online demand and reputation.•The higher person-group fit, the better individual online demand and reputation in online health ...communities.•Physicians’ title negatively moderates the relationship between individual group joining behavior and their online demand.
Group service in online health communities (OHCs) is a novel form of service where physicians can share knowledge and collaborate with others to provide better services to patients through the Internet. Although many literatures have explored the impact of individual group joining behavior on group performance, few researches have been done on the relationship between individual group joining behavior and their personal performance. To fill this gap, we examine the effect of individual group joining behavior on their online demand and reputation using a unique panel dataset of 8,069 physicians from a large online health community in China. In addition, how the effects differ among physicians with different clinic titles are explored and several robustness checks including propensity score matching analyses are conducted to control for self-selection among physicians. The results show that, physicians’ group joining behavior and the person-group fit will positively affect their online demand and reputation. Furthermore, we find that physicians’ clinic title has a negative moderating effect.
As the global demand for healthcare services continues to grow, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare ecosystem has become a pressing concern. Information systems are ...transforming the healthcare delivery process, shifting the focus of healthcare services from passive disease treatment to proactive health prevention and the healthcare management model from hospital-centric to patient-centric. This study focuses on reviewing research in IS journals on the topic of e-health and is dedicated to constructing a theoretical model of intelligent health to provide a research basis for future discussions in this field. In addition, as the innovation of intelligent healthcare services has led to changes in its elements (e.g., an increase in the number of stakeholders), there is an urgent need to sort out and analyze the existing research.
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Purpose The advent of online live streaming platforms (OLSPs) and online health communities (OHCs) has expedited the integration of traditional medical services with Internet new media technology. ...Since the practice of physicians conducting live streaming is a relatively new phenomenon, the potential cross-platform effects of such physicians’ live streaming have not received adequate attention. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data from 616 physicians specializing in cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology and neurology between April and November 2022 on Live.Baidu.com and WeDoctor.com. It constructed a panel data set comprising a total of 4,928 observations over an 8-month period and validated the model using empirical analysis with the fixed-effects method. Findings We find evidence of cross-platform influence in online healthcare. Physicians’ live streaming behavior (whether live or not and the heat of their streams) on OLSPs positively impacts both their consultation and reputation on OHCs. Additionally, physicians’ ability positively moderates the relationships between live streaming heat and their performance (in terms of consultation volume and reputation) on OHCs. However, ability does not moderate the relationship between physicians’ live streaming status (live or not) and their performance (in terms of consultation and reputation) on OHCs. Furthermore, the attractive appearance of the physicians also significantly moderates the impact in a positive way. Originality/value This is one of the pioneering studies on physicians’ live streaming. The study offers vital guidance for physicians and patients utilizing dual platforms and holds significant reference value for platform operators (such as OLSPs and OHCs) aiming to optimize platform operations and for the government in policy formulation and industry regulation.
Purpose
This study aims to develop a better understanding of how online health community (OHC) members with different health literacy (HL) levels benefit from their participation, through the ...analysis and comparison of their resource integration (RI) processes. It investigates through a RI lens how the vulnerability of community members – captured as their level of HL – affects the benefits they derive from participation.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to investigate the effects of healthcare service users’ vulnerability. Data were collected about their profiles and levels of HL. Furthermore, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted.
Findings
The study demonstrates how low levels of HL act as a barrier to the integration of available online health resources. Participation in OHCs appears less beneficial for vulnerable users. Three types of benefits were identified at the individual level, namely, psychological quality-of-life, physical quality-of-life and learning. Benefits identified at the community level were: content generation and participation in the development of the community.
Originality/value
This study has implications for the understanding of how service users’ activities affect their own outcomes and how the vulnerability of users could be anticipated and considered in the design of the community.
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