Investigating the impact of social support embedded in online consultation on physicians’ online reputation: the moderating role of media capabilities

Supervisors

• Dr Libo Liu (Main Supervisor)- The Univeristy of Melbourne, Melbourne, AU

Publications

• Investigating the impact of social support embedded in online consultation on physicians’ online reputation: The moderating role of media capabilities
• Investigating the Impact of Computer-Mediated Social Support on Patient Empowerment in Chronic Disease Management by Using Large Language Models

Background

• Context: Online Health Consultation (OHC) platforms are gaining popularity due to COVID-19’s impact, facilitating both social and economic returns for health providers and consumers.
• Issue Addressed: Examines how the embedding of social support in online consultation impacts physicians’ online reputation and how media capabilities moderate this effect.
• Key Theories:
  • Online Reputation Mechanism: Influences physicians’ economic returns and patients’ choices, with citations from recent studies.
  • Social Support Types: Analyzes action-facilitating and nurturant support within OHC, focusing on problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.

Research Model Development

• Research Questions:
  1. How do different categories of Computer-Mediated Social Support (CMSS) influence Physicians’ Online Reputation (POR)?
  2. How do media capabilities of OHC moderate the relationship between different types of CMSS and POR?

  

Research Methodology

• Approach: Utilizes data from a Chinese OHC platform, employing Python for data pre-processing and text mining to extract variables from physician-patient interactions.

Results & Discussions

• Findings: Highlights the significant impacts of action-facilitating and nurturant support on POR. Explores how communication depth and frequency, as well as readability, serve as moderating factors.

Implications and Limitations

• Theoretical Contributions: Enhances understanding of POR mechanisms in OHC through text mining and media synchronicity theory.
• Practical Implications: Assists physicians in developing effective communication strategies and suggests modifications to OHC platforms to support these strategies.
• Limitations: Notes the use of cross-sectional data and suggests future studies could use longitudinal data for more robust results.

Conclusion

• Summary: This research provides valuable insights into the dynamics of social support in online health consultations and its complex interaction with media capabilities affecting physicians’ online reputation.