| [Purpose]This study takes online medical platform as the background and doctor’s reputation as the starting point to explore the relevant indicators that can reflect doctor’s reputation in the online medical platform,and analyzes the impact of online medical doctor’s reputation on the service volume of three different types of consultation(image-text consultation,one question one answer,telephone consultation).Taking into account the mediating effect of service prices,we explore the effectiveness of online medical platform reputation and other signals and put forward the management strategy of consultation service to encourage doctors and patients to continue to participate in the online medical platform and provide reference and empirical supplement for promoting the good development of the online medical platform in China.[Methods] There are four main methods used in this study:(1)literature analysis: to summarize the development state and service characteristics of online medical platform through literature analysis,to clarify the meaning of online medical and doctor’s online reputation,and to summarize relevant theories on the role of reputation.(2)expert advice: according to the literature screening results and the actual situation of the online medical platform,an alternative index database reflecting the online reputation of doctors is formed.Inviting 16 experts in the fields of clinical work,hospital management,health management,and health care management research to select candidate indicators,combine expert opinions and correlation analysis results,and finally determine the relevant indicators that reflect the reputation of doctors in the online medical platform.(3)descriptive analysis: using data capture technology to capture and match reputational and service order information monthly for 27,311 doctors who had both image-text consultation,one question one answer,and telephone consultation between March and September 2019,capturing a total of 53,996,618 pieces of order information.After cleaning,702,807 consultation orders were retained for image-text consultation,one question one answer and telephone consultation,and 6 periods of data were collated.Descriptive statistical analysis of the data to understand the fluctuation of each indicator.(4)panel data regression model: with the help of a panel data regression model,the analysis was conducted to explore the effect of online medical doctor’s reputation on image-text consultation,one question one answer,and telephone consultation.The price of services is also used as a mediating variable to explore its mediating effect in the relationship between doctor’s online reputation and the volume of consultation services to explain and analyze the reasons for the effect of each variable on the volume of consultation services.[Results](1)Research on the evaluation index of the doctor’s reputation in online medical platform.An initial selection of 11 alternative indicators was made based on literature preferences and the practicalities of the platform.The experts scored from three aspects of the effectiveness,importance,and independence of the indicators.After two rounds of expert consultation,six indicators reflecting the online reputation of doctors were finally determined,including the waiting time of image-text consultation,the expected response rate within 24 hours of telephone consultation,the service star after consultation,online service satisfaction,the number of patients’ votes and the number of intentional gifts.According to the correlation test,the correlation coefficient of each index is within the acceptable range.(2)Analysis of the impact of the doctor’s online reputation on the service volume of different types of consultation.The results showed that in image-text consultation,the coefficients of waiting time,service star,online service satisfaction,patients’ votes,the number of gifts were 0.0954,0.0502,2.2129,0.0015 and 0.0002.In one question one answer,the coefficients of waiting time,service star,online service satisfaction,patients’ votes,the number of gifts were 0.0430,0.0461,2.0040,0.0013 and 0.0003,and P < 0.01.In telephone consultation,the coefficients of expected response rate within 24 hours,service star,online service satisfaction,number of patients’ votes,number of intentional gifts were 0.2769,0.0223,1.3868,0.0010 and 0.0001,and P < 0.01.The above results show that an increase in each of the indicators of doctor’s reputation in online medical platform will increase the volume of consultation services.At the same time,the improved reputation of doctors will lead them to raise the price of their services.However,the increase of service price in image-text consultation will reduce the volume of consultation.The increase of service price in one question one answer and telephone consultation will promote the increase of consultation volume.Service prices play a part in the mediating effect in the relationship between the doctor’s online reputation and the consultation services volume.[Conclusions]In the online medical platform,doctor’s reputation can be used as a signal to convey information related to doctor’s technical level and service quality to patients,reduce the degree of information asymmetry between doctors and patients,and promote the improvement of doctor’s online consultation service volume.Patients are more sensitive to the timeliness of doctor’s response when choosing a doctor,and tend to choose a doctor with better management after consulting and establish a principalagent relationship with him,to obtain better quality and long-term service.It will also take the online service satisfaction,the number of patients’ votes,and the number of intentional gifts as the reference to evaluate doctor’s service attitude and technical level to form service perception.In order to promote the good development of the online medical platform,the platform should optimize the feedback of the doctor’s reputation,strengthen data supervision and ensure the authenticity of reputation information;improve the reputation display mechanism and give more incentives to new doctors.Doctors participating in online medical platform should shorten the response time and improve the timeliness of feedback;strengthen the management after consultation,establish the fan group of patients and gradually form the personal brand;adjust the service price reasonably and enhance their competitiveness according to the different types of service to attract more patients. |
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