Online Healthcare Community Interaction Dynamics

With the increasing dilemma of the rapid global demand for healthcare services(often in the presence of limited resources),how to creatively allocate and use healthcare resources across a widespread population has become a salient issue.Online healthcare communities(OHCs)are regarded as a potential ICT-based partial solution.In contrast to traditional healthcare,online doctor-patient interaction is unlimited in terms of time and space limitations while an OHC is exposed to the whole community.These characteristics are key to achieving synergistic doctor-patient interaction and community development in the longer term.In order to explore the nature of doctor-patient interaction dynamics in an OHC,we systematically investigate doctor-patient interaction dynamics from the dual perspectives of doctor and patient.Our doctor-patient interaction dual-cycle model has been built based on six doctor-patient interaction processes(i.e.,searching,choosing,knowledge sharing,providing,receiving and balancing).According to our dual-cycle model,four key managerial issues in OHC(information asymmetry,incentive mechanisms,service delivery processes and interaction mechanisms)have been identified as examples.Discussion and directions for future research,with challenges as well as opportunities,have been elaborated.A broad view with fruitful research potential is ensured and new theories and methods ultimately provide implications for effectively and efficiently allocating scarce healthcare resources to a broader population.

有偿奖励对医生在线健康社区中贡献行为的影响

如何激励用户自愿贡献知识是保持在线社区活跃度的关键。近年来,学者开始探讨有偿激励对在线社区自愿贡献的影响。然而,较少有研究分析多边平台下的有偿激励的溢出效应。借助于自然实验的设计,考虑一种服务主导型在线社区——在线健康社区中,服务提供者(即医生)开通有偿服务(电话咨询)渠道对其知识贡献行为的影响。研究发现:开通有偿服务后,医生会在原来的免费文本咨询服务上也花费更多努力,提供更多、更及时和详实的医疗建议。同时,有偿服务对医生知识贡献的激励作用因医生社交互动程度而不同。相对于社交互动多的医生,社交互动少的医生开通电话咨询后,文本咨询努力程度的增加更明显。以往有关有偿激励对在线社区自愿贡献的影响多基于单边平台中产品主导型激励,该研究将有偿激励拓展至服务主导型的双边平台场景中。采用自然实验的设计,探索有偿激励对自愿贡献的因果关系及异质性,为平台设计和治理提供参考。