1
|
Fan W, Zhou Q, Qiu L, Kumar S. Should Doctors Open Online Consultation Services? An Empirical Investigation of Their Impact on Offline Appointments. INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH 2022. [DOI: 10.1287/isre.2022.1145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Online healthcare portals have become prevalent worldwide in recent years. One common form of healthcare portal is the online consultation website, which provides a bridge between patients and doctors and reduces patients’ time and cost when seeking healthcare services. Another form is the healthcare service appointment website, which facilitates offline visits for patients. Though nominally separate, the behaviors of the users (including patients and doctors) on these two types of websites could be related to each other. In particular, how does opening online consultation services impact the offline appointments of doctors? Although this is an important question for healthcare portals, doctors, and policy makers, it has not been rigorously examined in the literature. We examine the overall impact of opening online consultation services on offline appointments and show that the number of offline appointments for doctors increases after opening online consultation services. Given that online consultation is a new but important way to connect patients and doctors, our findings provide useful implications for all the stakeholders—doctors, patients, hospitals, and policy makers—regarding how to integrate online and offline channels in the healthcare context.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wenjuan Fan
- School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230002, China
| | - Qiqi Zhou
- School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230002, China
| | - Liangfei Qiu
- Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611
| | - Subodha Kumar
- Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
| |
Collapse
|