Paper ID

2491

Paper Type

full

Description

Online health interaction (OHI) is an effective and increasingly popular method for patients to access health information. Extant literature overlooks such service users’ satisfaction derived from online interactions and the measurement of OHI processes. Based on the relational communication literature and the features of OHI, the present study proposes three dimensions to conceptualize the success of OHI processes (i.e., interaction depth, information intensity, and time breadth) and explores the association between these interaction processes and service satisfaction. Further, two characteristics of OHI, namely information richness and indirect interaction, are identified as contingent factors on those proposed linkages. The research model was tested on the objective data collected from an online healthcare platform. The study findings showed that (1) interaction depth, information intensity, and time breadth positively impact service satisfaction and (2) both information richness and indirect interaction negatively moderate the effects of interaction depth and information intensity and positively moderate the effect of time breadth. The present study contributes to the existing literature by conceptualizing online interaction process and identifying the role of the specific characteristics of online healthcare and also provides implications to practitioners.

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How Online Patient–Physician Interaction Influences Patient Satisfaction

Online health interaction (OHI) is an effective and increasingly popular method for patients to access health information. Extant literature overlooks such service users’ satisfaction derived from online interactions and the measurement of OHI processes. Based on the relational communication literature and the features of OHI, the present study proposes three dimensions to conceptualize the success of OHI processes (i.e., interaction depth, information intensity, and time breadth) and explores the association between these interaction processes and service satisfaction. Further, two characteristics of OHI, namely information richness and indirect interaction, are identified as contingent factors on those proposed linkages. The research model was tested on the objective data collected from an online healthcare platform. The study findings showed that (1) interaction depth, information intensity, and time breadth positively impact service satisfaction and (2) both information richness and indirect interaction negatively moderate the effects of interaction depth and information intensity and positively moderate the effect of time breadth. The present study contributes to the existing literature by conceptualizing online interaction process and identifying the role of the specific characteristics of online healthcare and also provides implications to practitioners.