Understanding Physicians’ Online-Offline Behavior Dynamics: An Empirical Study

Abstract

<jats:p> Online healthcare platforms allow physicians and patients to communicate in a timely manner. Yet little is known about how physicians’ online and offline activities affect each other and, consequently, the healthcare system. We collected data from both online and offline channels to study physicians’ online-offline behavior dynamics. We find that physicians’ online activities can lead to a higher service quantity in offline channels, whereas offline activities may reduce physicians’ online services because of resource constraints. We also find that the more offline patients that physicians serve, the more articles the physicians will likely share in online healthcare platforms. These findings are of great importance to practitioners and policy makers. Our work provides evidence that online healthcare platforms supplement offline services and thus lessen the concern that physicians’ participation in online healthcare platforms will negatively influence offline healthcare services. Our findings also indicate the need for the improvement of online-offline coordination and better system design. </jats:p>

Effects of Online–Offline Service Integration on e‐Healthcare Providers: A Quasi‐Natural Experiment

“…One related work that our study extends from is that of Wang et al. (2020), which explored the online–offline interaction of providers’ activities. In particular, the authors indicated that providers’ online healthcare services influence their offline demand, which in turn negatively affects their online service.…”

“…For example, the offline healthcare activities of providers correlate with the number of their online consultations (Wang et al. 2020). In addition, the quality of social interactions between providers and patients online can influence the providers’ online demand (Chang et al.…”

“…Alternatively, note that the providers inherently have resource constraints (Wang et al. 2020). According to the resource‐based view (Barney 1991, Teece et al.…”

“…2005, Wang et al. 2020, Wu and Lu 2017), there is limited research on the consequences of service integration across online and offline channels, which provides insights for optimizing operations management in e‐healthcare. Therefore, our work aims to address this gap in the e‐healthcare and operations research literature.…”

Patterns of eHealth Website User Engagement Based on Cross-site Clickstream Data: Correlational Study

“…Providing and delivering web-based services is a major trend in the digital transformation of health services [1]. Currently, increasingly more users obtain health information, consult a physician, purchase drugs, or self-manage wellness from smartphones.…”