Exploring the impact of online information signals in leveraging the economic returns of physicians

Adnan Muhammad Shah; Xiangbin Yan; Syed Asad Ali Shah; Syed Jamal Shah; Gulnara Mamirkulova

doi:10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103272

Exploring the impact of online information signals in leveraging the economic returns of physicians

J Biomed Inform. 2019 Oct:98:103272. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103272. Epub 2019 Aug 31.

Authors

Adnan Muhammad Shah¹, Xiangbin Yan², Syed Asad Ali Shah³, Syed Jamal Shah⁴, Gulnara Mamirkulova⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: adnanshah@stu.hit.edu.cn.
² Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: xbyan@hit.edu.cn.
³ Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: asadshah@hit.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: jimmikakakhail@stu.hit.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: gulnara-20.91@mail.ru.

PMID: 31479747
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103272

Abstract

Introduction: With the growth in Internet technology, online rating websites encourage patients to contribute actively in rating their physicians. These rating sites provide more information for patients, such as electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and physician trustworthiness. Although several studies in e-commerce have investigated the role of eWOM and seller trustworthiness in the consumer purchase decision-making process and the price premium for products or services, studies on the role of different information sources that reflect the service quality and delivery process in choosing a competent physician remain scarce. This research develops a two-equation model to examine the effect of different signals, i.e., patient-generated signals (PGSs) and system-generated signals (SGSs), on patient choice, which is an important predictor of physicians' economic returns.

Methods: A secondary data econometric analysis and structural modeling using 2896 physicians' real data from a publicly available online physician rating site, i.e., Healthgrades.com, were conducted using a mixed-methods approach. A hybrid text mining approach was adopted to calculate the sentiment of each review.

Results: We find that both PGSs and SGSs have a significant impact on patient choice at different stages of health consultation. Furthermore, disease risk negatively moderates the association between PGSs and information search, while the impact of both signals on patient willingness to pay a price premium is positively moderated by the disease risk.

Conclusion: Our study contributes to the unified framework of signaling theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory by making a clear distinction between PGSs or SGSs and their influence on patient decision-making across different disease risks. Moreover, PGSs and SGSs are two essential factors for physicians to increase their income.

Keywords: Disease risk; Online health information; Patient decision making; Price premium; Sentiment analysis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Commerce
Data Mining
Decision Making
Economics, Medical
Humans
Income
Internet
Models, Econometric
Patient Satisfaction*
Physician-Patient Relations
Physicians / economics*
Physicians / statistics & numerical data
Professional Practice / economics*
Social Media
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States