Converting Visitors of Physicians’ Personal Websites to Customers in Online Health Communities: Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Background With the dramatic development of Web 2.0, increasing numbers of patients and physicians are actively involved in online health communities. Despite extensive research on online health communities, the conversion rate from visitor to customer and its driving factors have not been discussed. Objective The aim of this study was to analyze the conversion rate of online health communities and to explore the effects of multisource online health community information, including physician-generated information, patient-generated information, and system-generated information. Methods An empirical study was conducted to examine the effects of physician-generated, patient-generated, and system-generated information on the conversion rate of physicians’ personal websites by analyzing short panel data from 2112 physicians over five time periods in a Chinese online health community. Results Multisource online health community information (ie, physician-generated, patient-generated, and system-generated information) positively affected the conversion rate. Physician-generated and patient-generated information showed a substitute relationship rather than a complementary relationship. In addition, the usage time of a personal website positively moderated patient-generated information, but negatively moderated physician-generated information. Conclusions This study contributes to the electronic health literature by investigating the conversion rate of online health communities and the effect of multisource online health community information. This study also contributes to understanding the drivers of conversion rate on service websites, which can help to successfully improve the efficiency of online health communities.

The Effects of Log-in Behaviors and Web Reviews on Patient Consultation in Online Health Communities: Longitudinal Study

“…Patients can gain insight into a physician's past efforts through web-based behaviors, which may influence their attitudes toward the physician, thereby influencing the likelihood of selecting that physician [6]. Most importantly, physicians' web-based behaviors are important cues for evaluating service process quality [14,16]. Combined with health care service characteristics [2][3][4], patients prefer to choose physicians who can provide a high-quality service process.…”

“…In OHCs, web reviews are generated by patients who have experienced health care services. The more web reviews about a physician presented in the OHC, the more patients have selected the physician for consultation [16]. The web reviews generated by patients with similar experiences are more objective and credible signals than traditional information from acquaintances [40], which can increase other patients' trust in the physician and reduce perceived risks [41].…”

“…As physicians work full time in hospitals or clinics [14], they can only use off-duty hours to provide web-based services [15], which suggests that there are different log-in patterns in OHCs. Web-based behaviors reflect the degree of the physician's activeness and effort, as well as the quality of the service process [5,6,14,16]. In addition, as one kind of information generated by patients who have experienced health care services, web reviews can reflect the service outcome [14,16] and influence patients to make consulting choices [8][9][10].…”

“…Web-based behaviors reflect the degree of the physician's activeness and effort, as well as the quality of the service process [5,6,14,16]. In addition, as one kind of information generated by patients who have experienced health care services, web reviews can reflect the service outcome [14,16] and influence patients to make consulting choices [8][9][10]. The assessment of service quality should focus on both the outcome and delivery process they receive [17].…”

The Impact of Signals Transmission on Patients’ Choice through E-Consultation Websites: An Econometric Analysis of Secondary Datasets

“…Patients and physicians display different signals on e-consultation websites, affecting patients’ cognitive abilities to choose a good doctor [ 16 ]. People obtain information regarding the quality of healthcare services rendered by physicians through different signaling mechanism [ 25 ], such as the process that the signaler (i.e., the physician) sends measurable signals (i.e., offline reputation as physician title, education, experience and online effort) to the recipient (i.e., patients) to communicate details about the non-observable qualities (i.e., competency) in order to minimize information asymmetry [ 21 , 26 ]. Earlier research indicated that receivers are sovereign decision-makers [ 27 ].…”