Social Media and Healthcare Technology
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ItemExploring the Use of Twitter by Leading Medical Centers in the United States( 2019-01-08)Healthcare organizations such as hospitals and clinics increasingly use social media platforms such as Twitter to raise awareness in the community about health and wellness issues. In line with this trend, the current study seeks to understand how Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Mayo Clinic use their primary Twitter accounts to post information related to each of the following major health topics: brain, cancer, diabetes, diet, exercise, heart, mental health, and obesity. Nearly 6,000 tweets posted by those medical centers were collected and analyzed. The results showed that the three medical centers used diet and cancer topics more frequently than the other six topics in their tweets. Moreover, diabetes was consistently the least frequently used topic in the analyzed tweets. The results associated with the other five topics were mixed.
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ItemThe Impact of a New App Channel on Physicians’ Performance: Evidence From Online Healthcare Natural Experiment( 2019-01-08)Besides the web browser, the introduction of the mobile app in online healthcare systems has resulted in an additional touchpoint for users. Drawing on the Media Richness theory, we aim to reveal the effect of the mobile app channel on physicians’ performance in the online health communities (OHCs). We provide direct empirical evidence on a large-scale dataset from one of the largest Chinese OHCs, Haodf, and propose a natural experiment to show the casual effect. Our results demonstrate that the introduction of the app channel to OHCs for patients has a positive impact on physicians’ responses and rating performance on the online platforms, especially for male physicians from high-ranking hospitals.
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ItemWhy Do I Rate? - Shedding Light on the Factors Influencing the Participation on Physician Rating Websites( 2019-01-08)Nowadays it is possible for consumers to exchange consumption experiences with everybody on the internet. For almost every product or service people form communities or visit dedicated rating websites to exchange information. Concerning medical treatment services, physician ratings have emerged as a field of interest for both patients and physicians. However, little is known about why people even spend time and effort to rate their physician. We conducted a study in which we asked patients about their intention to use physician rating websites, building on the social exchange theory. The results suggest that the main motivations to rate are to help other patients finding the right doctor or trying to influence the doctor for better treatment in the future.
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ItemAn Empirical Examination of Factors Influencing the Intention to Use Physician Rating Websites( 2019-01-08)Physician rating websites (PRWs) are social media platforms that enable patients to submit ratings and reviews of physicians. While numerous PRWs are available on the Internet and millions of physician reviews are posted on those websites, many people still do not use them when making clinical decisions. This study seeks to understand what factors impact intention to use PRWs. A sample of 109 students was employed. Each subject was randomly assigned to either RateMDs, Vitals, or Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s website. The subjects were asked to choose a primary care doctor based on the reviews posted on the assigned website and complete a survey accordingly. The regression analysis revealed that perceived credibility of reviewers and general use of online reviews influenced intention to use PRWs, whereas perceived integrity of website providers only moderated the relation between perceived credibility of reviewers and intention to use PRWs.
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ItemUsing Social Media to Explore Mental Health-Related Behaviors and Discussions among Young Adults( 2019-01-08)There have been recurring reports of online harassment and abuse among adolescents and young adults through Anonymous Social Networking websites (ASNs). We explored discussions related to social and mental health behaviors among college students, including cyberbullying on the popular ASN, Yik Yak. From April 6, 2016, to May 7, 2016, we collected anonymous conversations posted on Yik Yak at 19 universities in four different states. We found that prosocial messages were approximately five times as prevalent as bullying messages. Frequency of cyberbullying messages was positively associated with messages seeking emotional help. We found significant geographic variation in the frequency of messages offering supportive versus bullying messages. Across campuses bullying and political discussion were positively associated. Results suggest that ASN sites can be mined for real-time data about students’ mental health-related attitudes and behaviors. We discuss the implications for using this information in education and healthcare services.
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ItemContent Analysis of Tweets by People with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Implications for Rehabilitation and Social Media Goals( 2019-01-08)In this Twitter research, 6874 tweets of six adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using content classification [1], inductive coding of content themes, socio-linguistic analysis, and computational analysis in KH Coder. The results reflected that participants used Twitter for: (i) supporting others, including people with TBI; (ii) discussing society and culture, popular issues, news, and personal interests; (iii) connecting with others; (iv) sharing their experiences of life after TBI; (v) knowledge via exchanging information; and (vii) advocacy. ‘Emotional expression’, and ‘connection’ were common threads running across themes. Attending to the expressions of people with TBI on Twitter provides important insights into their lived experiences and could inform the development of user-centered cognitive-communication and social participation goals for people with TBI.
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ItemFighting Together: Discovering the Antecedents of Social Support and Helpful Discussion Threads in Online Support Forums for Cannabis Quitters( 2019-01-08)An increasing number of people are using online cannabis support forums as a source of help for their cannabis quit attempts. In order to assist support seekers dealing with emotional and physical-behavioral difficulties associated with their cannabis abstinence, it is important to identify the factors that facilitate social support provisions by forum members, as well as the overall helpfulness of discussion threads. In this combined qualitative and quantitative study, we propose a model hypothesizing and testing these factors, based on variables generated using Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques. The result shows that linguistic and content characteristics of thread-initiating messages are important predictors of the receptions of informational and emotional support from other forum members, and of the overall helpfulness of discussion threads.
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