JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Online medical consultation is an important complementary approach to offline healthcare services. It not only increases patients’ accessibility to medical care, but can also encourage patients to actively participate in consultation, which can result in higher patient satisfaction and treatment effectiveness.

Objective:

This study aims to explore multi-level factors that influence patient participation in online medical consultations.

Methods:

A dataset comprising 40,505 patients from 300 physicians in 10 specialties was included for analysis. A multi-level analysis was conducted involving patient- and physician-levels factors during the online medical consultation.

Results:

Patient characteristics, consultation behavioral attributes, and physician professional characteristics constitute three dimensions that affect patient participation. Specifically, young and female patients participated more actively. Patients’ waiting times for physician responses were negatively correlated with participation, whereas patient initiation of conversation and patient consultation cost were positively correlated. Physicians’ online consultation volumes were negatively associated with patient participation, whereas physicians’ online consultation fees were positively associated. The interaction effects between patient- and physician-level factors were also identified.

Conclusions:

Patient participation during online medical consultation is influenced by multiple factors and is likely to be enhanced by reducing patients’ waiting times and encouraging patient initiation during consultation. The findings have practical implications for the future development of online medical consultation services.