Search results

1 – 10 of 411
Article
Publication date: 26 March 2024

Dilek Şahin, Mehmet Nurullah Kurutkan and Tuba Arslan

Today, e-government (electronic government) applications have extended to the frontiers of health-care delivery. E-Nabız contains personal health records of health services…

Abstract

Purpose

Today, e-government (electronic government) applications have extended to the frontiers of health-care delivery. E-Nabız contains personal health records of health services received, whether public or private. The use of the application by patients and physicians has provided efficiency and cost advantages. The success of e-Nabız depends on the level of technology acceptance of health-care service providers and recipients. While there is a large research literature on the technology acceptance of service recipients in health-care services, there is a limited number of studies on physicians providing services. This study aims to determine the level of influence of trust and privacy variables in addition to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating factors in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model on the intention and behavior of using e-Nabız application.

Design/methodology/approach

The population of the study consisted of general practitioners and specialist physicians actively working in any health facility in Turkey. Data were collected cross-sectionally from 236 physicians on a voluntary basis through a questionnaire. The response rate of data collection was calculated as 47.20%. Data were collected cross-sectionally from 236 physicians through a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data.

Findings

The study found that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, trust and perceived privacy had a significant effect on physicians’ behavioral intentions to adopt the e-Nabız system. In addition, facilitating conditions and behavioral intention were determinants of usage behavior (p < 0.05). However, no significant relationship was found between social influence and behavioral intention (p > 0.05).

Originality/value

This study confirms that the UTAUT model provides an appropriate framework for predicting factors influencing physicians’ behaviors and intention to use e-Nabız. In addition, the empirical findings show that trust and perceived privacy, which are additionally considered in the model, are also influential.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 September 2023

Jia Li, Shengkang Ma, David C. Yen and Ling Ma

In the digital age, the spread of online behavior and real-world information leads to social contagion. This study aims to investigate the contagion phenomenon of online physician…

Abstract

Purpose

In the digital age, the spread of online behavior and real-world information leads to social contagion. This study aims to investigate the contagion phenomenon of online physician choice and then discuss its potential influence on the sub-specialization process in the healthcare service industry. In specific, this study aims to propose the basic mechanism of infection and immunity as follows – exposure to antigen may lead to an immune response, and the success of the immune response may depend on the provision of appropriate immune signaling.

Design/methodology/approach

Data collected from haodf.com including 4 disease types and 247 physicians from 2008 to 2015 were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Panel vector autoregression method was utilized to analyze the panel data.

Findings

The obtained result shows that social contagion of physician choice over disease type is salient on e-consultation platforms, indicating that physicians associated with/on haodf.com are concentrating on an even narrower type of disease. Disclosing more simple signals (physician history orders) results in more disease concentration for that physician in the future. In contrast, disclosing more detailed signals (physician-contributed knowledge or physician reviews) leads to less disease concentration.

Originality/value

This finding implies that physician-contributed knowledge and physician reviews may act as immune signal which will tend to trigger a success immune response. This study not only suggests managers should be careful about the double-edged sword effect of online physician choice contagion but also provides the useful approaches to promote or restrain such a contagion in a flexible way.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 October 2023

Jiahua Jin, Qin Chen and Xiangbin Yan

Given the popularity of online health communities (OHCs) and medical question-and-answer (Q&A) services, it is increasingly important to understand what constitutes useful answers…

Abstract

Purpose

Given the popularity of online health communities (OHCs) and medical question-and-answer (Q&A) services, it is increasingly important to understand what constitutes useful answers and user-adopted standards in healthcare domain. However, few studies provide insights into how health information characteristics, provider characteristics and recipient characteristics jointly influence user information adoption decisions. To fill this research gap, this study examines the combined effects of physicians' certainty tone as information characteristics, seniority as provider characteristics and disease severity as recipient characteristics on patients' health information adoption.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on dual-process theory and information adoption model, an extended information adoption model is established in this study to examine the effect of attitude certainty on patients' health information adoption, and the moderating effects of online seniority and offline seniority, as well as patient motivation level—disease severity. Utilizing logit regression models, the authors empirically tested the hypotheses based on 4,224 Q&A records from a popular Chinese OHC.

Findings

The results show that (1) attitude certainty has a significant positive impact on patients' health information adoption, (2) the relationship between attitude certainty and information adoption is negatively moderated by physicians' online seniority, but is positively moderated by offline seniority; (3) there is a negative three-way interaction effect of attitude certainty, online seniority and disease severity on patients' health information adoption.

Originality/value

This study extends the information adoption model to examine the two-way interaction between argument quality and source reliability, as well as the three-way interaction with user motivation level, especially for health information adoption in the healthcare field. These findings also provide direct practical applications for knowledge contributors and OHCs.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Qing Ye and Hong Wu

Waiting time, as an important predictor of queue abandonment and patient satisfaction, is important for resource utilization and patient experience management. Medical…

Abstract

Purpose

Waiting time, as an important predictor of queue abandonment and patient satisfaction, is important for resource utilization and patient experience management. Medical institutions have given top priority to reforming the appointment system for many years; however, whether the increased information transparency brought about by the appointment scheduling mechanism could improve patient waiting time is not well understood. In this study, the authors examine the effects of information transparency in reducing patient waiting time from an uncertainty perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Leveraging a quasi-natural experiment in a tertiary academic hospital, the authors analyze over one million observational patient visit records and design the propensity score matching plus the difference in difference (PSM-DID) model and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to address this issue.

Findings

The authors confirm that, on average, improved information transparency significantly reduces the waiting time for patients by approximately 6.43 min, a 4.90% reduction. The authors identify three types of uncertainties (resource, process and outcome uncertainty) in the patient visit process that affect patients' waiting time. Moreover, information transparency moderates the relationship between three sources of uncertainties and waiting time.

Originality/value

The authors’ work not only provides important theoretical explanations for the patient-level factors of in-clinic waiting time and the reasons for information technology (IT)-enabled appointment scheduling by time slot (ITASS) to shorten patient waiting time and improve patient experience but also provides potential solutions for further exploration of measures to reduce patient waiting time.

Details

Internet Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 May 2023

Peng Ouyang, Jiaming Liu and Xiaofei Zhang

Free knowledge sharing in the online health community has been widely documented. However, whether free knowledge sharing can help physicians accumulate popularity and further the…

374

Abstract

Purpose

Free knowledge sharing in the online health community has been widely documented. However, whether free knowledge sharing can help physicians accumulate popularity and further the accumulated popularity can help physicians attract patients remain unclear. To unveil these gaps, this study aims to examine how physicians' popularity are affected by their free knowledge sharing, how the relationship between free knowledge sharing and popularity is moderated by professional capital, and how the popularity finally impacts patients' attraction.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collect a panel dataset from Hepatitis B within an online health community platform with 10,888 observations from April 2020 to August 2020. The authors develop a model that integrates free knowledge sharing, popularity, professional capital, and patients' attraction. The hierarchical regression model is used to for examining the impact of free knowledge sharing on physicians' popularity and further investigating the impact of popularity on patients' attraction.

Findings

The authors find that the quantity of articles acted as the heuristic cue and the quality of articles acted as the systematic cue have positive effect on physicians' popularity, and this effect is strengthened by physicians' professional capital. Furthermore, physicians' popularity positively influences their patients' attraction.

Originality/value

This study reveals the aggregation of physicians' popularity and patients' attraction within online health communities and provides practical implications for managers in online health communities.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2023

Yuangao Chen, Meng Liu, Mingjing Chen, Lu Wang, Le Sun and Gang Xuan

The purpose of this research paper is to explore the determinants of patients' service choices between telephone consultation and text consultation in online health communities…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research paper is to explore the determinants of patients' service choices between telephone consultation and text consultation in online health communities (OHCs).

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized an empirical model based on the elaboration likelihood model and examined the effect of information, regarding service quality (the central route) and service price (the peripheral route), using online health consultation data from one of the largest OHCs in China.

Findings

The logistic regression results indicated that both physician- and patient-generated information can influence the patients' service choices; service price signals will lead patients to cheaper options. However, individual motivations, disease risk and consulting experience change a patients' information processing regarding central and peripheral cues.

Originality/value

Previous researchers have investigated the mechanism of patient behavior in OHCs; however, the researchers have not focused on the patients' choices regarding the multiple health services provided in OHCs. The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications for future researchers, OHC designers and physicians.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 July 2023

Jiaoyang Li, Xixi Li and Cheng Zhang

While spontaneous and voluntary knowledge contribution in online communities promotes value co-creation, dysfunctional knowledge behaviors hamper the effectiveness and development…

Abstract

Purpose

While spontaneous and voluntary knowledge contribution in online communities promotes value co-creation, dysfunctional knowledge behaviors hamper the effectiveness and development of such communities. The study conceptualizes physicians' proactive knowledge sharing and knowledge withholding behaviors in physician-driven online health communities (OHCs) and integrates the theories of role identity as well as communal and exchange relationships to understand the root causes and motivations behind these two types of knowledge behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected survey data from 166 users from one of the largest physician-driven OHCs in China and applied the covariance-based structural equation modeling approach to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings suggest that (1) physicians' professional role identity had a positive indirect effect on proactive knowledge sharing behaviors through communal motivation, and work pressure weakened this indirect effect; and (2) professional role identity had a negative indirect impact on knowledge withholding behaviors through exchange motivation.

Originality/value

This study extends proactive knowledge sharing and knowledge withholding behaviors from the organizational management domain to the online environment, exploring the underlying causes and motivations behind both behaviors in the unique context of physician-driven OHCs. The findings offer practical suggestions for the effective management of OHC platforms, as well as policy implications that respond to the workforce shortage of healthcare providers, a crisis that is unfolding globally.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 July 2023

Qin Chen, Jiahua Jin, Tingting Zhang and Xiangbin Yan

The success of online health communities (OHCs) depends on maintaining long-term relationships with physicians and preventing churn. Even so, the reasons for physician churn are…

Abstract

Purpose

The success of online health communities (OHCs) depends on maintaining long-term relationships with physicians and preventing churn. Even so, the reasons for physician churn are poorly understood. In this study, an empirical model was proposed from a social influence perspective to explore the effects of online social influence and offline social influence on physician churn, as well as the moderating effect of their online returns.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical data of 4,145 physicians from a Chinese OHC, and probit regression models were employed to verify the proposed theoretical model.

Findings

The results suggest that physicians' churn intention is influenced by online and offline social influences, and the offline social influence is more powerful. Physicians' reputational and economic returns could weaken the effect of online social influence on churn intention. However, physicians' economic returns could strengthen the effect of offline social influence on churn intention.

Originality/value

This research study is the first attempt to explore physician churn and divides the social influence into online and offline social influences according to the source of social relationship. The findings contribute to the literature on e-Health, user churn and social influence and provide management implications for OHC managers.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2023

Simona Andreea Apostu and Bulent Akkaya

The migration of physicians is a global interest, causing imbalances between developed and developing countries. Romania is one of Europe's major providers of physicians, not…

Abstract

Purpose

The migration of physicians is a global interest, causing imbalances between developed and developing countries. Romania is one of Europe's major providers of physicians, not because there is a surplus, but because physicians are drawn to places with better living and working conditions. Medicine in Romania is increasingly highly advanced, and Romanian physicians are well appreciated all over the world. Despite being one of the countries with the most medical graduates in the world, Romania is suffering a doctor exodus. After joining the EU, the problem of physician migration became widespread, resulting in a deficient and inefficient healthcare system. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to estimate the losses registered by Romania because of physicians' decision to migrate.

Design/methodology/approach

These losses were calculated in two ways: utilizing the statistical life value and the amount of money invested in training a medical graduate.

Findings

According to the findings, the losses in 2018 were 104.16 million euros, approximately 0.12% of GDP.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper consists in data, being provided by the College of Physicians from Romania and the method used, this study being the only one that estimates the cost of Romanian physicians' migration. The paper adds to existing knowledge an empirical results regarding quantifying the value reflecting the departure of physicians, using value of statistical life and the amount of money invested in preparing a medical graduate.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 August 2023

Dandan Wen, Jianhua Zhang, Fredrick Ahenkora Boamah and Yilin Liu

Continuous knowledge contribution behaviors (CKCB) are critical for the healthy development of online medical communities (OMCs). However, it is unclear that if and how…

Abstract

Purpose

Continuous knowledge contribution behaviors (CKCB) are critical for the healthy development of online medical communities (OMCs). However, it is unclear that if and how contributors' prior actions and the responses they received from the community influence the nature of their future contributions. Drawing upon the Information Systems Continuance theory and Service Feedback theory, the purpose of the study is to examine the impact of knowledge contribution performance (KCP) on doctors' CKCB. Evaluation of social motivation, financial incentive and the moderating influence of expertise level (EL) provided further insight into the pathways that motivate various forms of CKCB.

Design/methodology/approach

In order to better understand the CKCB of physicians in OMCs, the authors divided it into two categories: A_CKCB (active CKCB) and P_CKCB (passive CKCB). Information Systems Continuance theory and Service Feedback theory are adapted and integrated with empirical findings from previous research on OMCs to develop a model of CKCB. This study used ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to test hypotheses in the preexisting research model based on data collected from a Chinese OMC platform.

Findings

The results show that KCP helps develop several facets of CKCB. According to the findings, doctors' CKCB improved dramatically after receiving feedback from A_CKCB and P_CKCB, but feedback from peers did not promote CKCB. This study found that financial rewards only have a significant positive effect on P_CKCB, and that the level of expertise has a negative effect on the effect. The findings also demonstrated that doctors' level of expertise moderates the relationship between fA_CKCB (a comprehensive evaluation of doctors' A_CKCB) and A_CKCB.

Research limitations/implications

Future studies should look at the role of self-efficacy as a mediator and attitudes as a moderator in the link between KCP and various forms of CKCB. This will help authors figure out how important KCP is for physicians' CKCB. And future research should use more than one way to gather data to prove the above roles.

Practical implications

This study makes a significant contribution to understanding the association between CKCB and KCP by highlighting the significance of distinguishing between the various forms of CKCB and their underlying causes.

Originality/value

This research has advanced both the theory and practice of OMCs' user management by illuminating the central role of KCP in this context.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

1 – 10 of 411