Abstract
This study explores the answers posted on an online medical consultation website- Taiwan eDoctor of Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan. It analyzes the medical consultation provided by medical professionals, with specific focus on length of consultation, consultation types, consultation strategies, and consultation intents. The average length of consultation is 135.025 words, with consultation of Geriatrics and Gerontology the longest. Six types of consultation are found, including evaluative, diagnostic, interventive, health-promotional, and administrative. Nine consultation strategies are found, and most commonly used strategy is explanational. The most commonly delivered intent among all eight consultation intents is making suggestions. The results of the study may shed insight into the physician-patient relationship in an online environment, and also generalize the patterns to the interaction during clinical encounter in order to improve the service quality of medical information. This study makes implications in designing an interactive online health consultation system.
| Translated title of the contribution | Investigating the Role of Online Medical Consultation: An Analysis of Doctors' Answers on TAIWAN eDOCTOR |
|---|---|
| Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Pages (from-to) | 21-35 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | 醫療資訊雜誌 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Medical informatics
- health informatics
- online medical consultation