JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The application of big data resources and the development of medical collaborative networks (MCNs) are intertwined, promoted and spiraled. However, how big data resources affect the emergence, development and evolution of MCNS has not been well explained.

Objective:

This study aims to explore and understand the influencing mechanism of a wide range of shared and private big data resources (BDRs) in MCNs on the transaction efficiency of medical services, so as to reveal the impact of BDRs on the emergence and development of MCNs.

Methods:

In this study, IT officers of 132 hospitals in China completed a survey with seven variables: (1) one dependent variable “transaction efficiency of medical services”, which is regarded as a key variable to represent the emergence and development of endogenous MCNs; (2) two variables for sharing big data resource (SPD)(big data itself) at the network level; (3) one variables for policies and regulations related to big data (PR) at the network level; (4) two variables for external interactive big data (OSD) (healthcare big data itself) at the level of medical institutions in the MCN; (5) two variables for outward interaction security (OST) (big data technology) at the level of medical institutions in the MCN. SmartPLS version 2.0 software package is used to test the direct impact of BDRs on transaction efficiency of medical service are examined. For those big data resources that have no direct impact on transaction efficiency, we further analyze their indirect impact.

Results:

We found that (1) Sharing big data resource (SPD)(big data itself) at the network level directly affects the transaction efficiency of medical services, (2) External interactive big data (OSD) (big data itself) at the level of medical institutions indirectly affects the transaction efficiency of medical services through outward interaction security (OST) (big data technology) at the level of medical institutions, (3) Outward interaction security (OST) (big data technologies) at the level of medical institutions directly or indirectly affects the transaction efficiency of medical services, and (4) Policies and regulations (PR) at the network level affect the external big data technology resources at the organization level, to indirectly influence the transaction service efficiency.

Conclusions:

Big data technology, big data itself and policy at the network level and organization level interact and influence each other to form the service transaction efficiency of various MCNs. This study highlights the implications of big data resources on the emergence and development of MCNs.