Channel integration services in online healthcare communities

• Main Authors: ZHAO, Anqi, TANG, Qian
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Databases and Information Systems; Health Information Technology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/6593; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/7596/viewcontent/Channel_Integration_Services_in_Online_Healthcare_Communities.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In online healthcare communities, channel integration services have become the bridge between online and offline channels, enabling patients to easily migrate across channels. Different from pure online services, online-to-offline (On2Off) and offline-to-online (Off2On) channel integration services involve both channels. This study examines the interrelationships between pure online services and channel integration services. Using a panel dataset composed of data from an online healthcare community, we find that pure online services decrease patients’ demand for On2Off integration services but increase their use of Off2On integration services. Our findings suggest that providing healthcare services online can reduce online patients’ needs to visit physicians offline and convert physicians’ offline patients into online patients. We further confirm that the substitution effect of online services for offline visits is driven by physicians’ medical responses to patients’ online enquiries. Our work contributes to the literature on online healthcare communities and channel integration in delivering healthcare services.