Users' preferred interactive e‐health tools on hospital web sites
International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing
ISSN: 1750-6123
Article publication date: 31 August 2012
Abstract
Purpose
Healthcare is becoming an important part of people's online content consumption, with people searching for information on diseases or medical problems, treatments or procedures, particular doctors or hospitals, or about parking. This paper aims to investigate what users deem essential on patient‐oriented interactive e‐health tools on hospital web sites.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings are based on 242 patients/users from diverse backgrounds in a purposive sample. A modified Delphi technique was used in two rounds of survey to collect and analyze data.
Findings
The respondents highly desire core‐business tools, especially access to medical records and lab results, while discounting hospitals' efforts to connect to social media. Hospitals' e‐health implementation on their web sites has greatly lagged behind the users' needs for interacting with hospitals online. It is concluded that, while continuing to provide traditional functional tools, hospitals should expedite their development in providing core e‐business tools and emerging functional tools in order to accomplish multiple objectives, including service, education, and marketing.
Research limitations/implications
Hospitals' e‐health development efforts have been behind the users' expectations at large. Future research should explore whether such lagging has resulted mainly from the lack of technical know‐how, lack of funding, and/or lack of vision on the administrative level.
Practical implications
The paper provides solid empirical evidence for US hospitals to (re)consider how to prioritize their efforts in implementing e‐health online so as to build a user‐centric web site.
Originality/value
Most US hospitals have implemented some form of e‐health online to serve their patients/users, but rarely have researchers studied such efforts. As a result, hospitals have had little evidence to gauge their implementation success. This is the first empirical study that investigates from the patient/user perspective the usefulness of various interactive e‐health tools online.
Keywords
Citation
Huang, E., Angela Chang, C. and Khurana, P. (2012), "Users' preferred interactive e‐health tools on hospital web sites", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506121211259395
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited