Flip a coin: Collaborative consumption or Sharing Economy in Ophthalmology services

Abstract

The sharing economy and collaborative consumption provide new opportunities in health care, especially to physicians, medical organizations, and consumers (patients). In health care services, there has been a long debate on the implementation and the characteristics of such concepts. Both terms may be very cost-effective, if applied accordingly. The aim of this paper was to investigate whether the concepts of sharing economy and collaborative consumption can be successfully used in health care services, with a specific interest in Ophthalmology services. The conclusions reached revealed that sharing economy in Ophthalmology services should be used from a consumer perspective, whereas the collaborative consumption concept should be used from a provider's perspective.

Keywords: collaborative consumption; ophthalmology services; sharing economy.