Abstract

As a new type of doctor-patient information exchange platform in the Internet medical era, online health community integrates abundant health information resources and provides online communication and interaction channels for patients and doctors. This study aims to understand the information interaction patterns in online health community by integrating the dyadic interaction between doctors and patients. Based on 1260 valid interaction information from Chunyu Doctor, a popular OHC in China, this study identified three information interaction patterns, including P-OHC-P (Pattern1), P-OHC-P-H(Pattern2) and H-P-OHC-P-H (Pattern3) via content analysis. Combining the dimensions of information source, information flow, user online and offline diagnosis, medical treatment status, interactive content topic and other dimensions, we summarize the different characteristics of each pattern. The findings of this study have several theoretical implications to the information interaction in online communities, as well as practical implications to managers of OHC. The limitations of this study is also given.

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