Initial Communication Media and Patient Revisit: Evidence from an Online Mental Healthcare Platform

56 Pages Posted: 10 May 2023

See all articles by Weiwei Sun

Weiwei Sun

Harbin Institute of Technology; City University of Hong Kong (CityU)

Aaron Cheng

London School of Economics - Department of Management

Xitong Guo

Harbin Institute of Technology

Date Written: March 20, 2023

Abstract

Online mental healthcare platforms have flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the media choice in online physician-patient interactions has still been a conundrum for all stakeholders. As an essential service design element, communication media could affect patient revisit, which in turn helps manage chronic diseases. Yet this media effect is little understood in research and practice. Using data from a leading online mental healthcare platform in China, we classify service media into synchronous (audio, video) and asynchronous (text) types and study their relative effects. First, we observe disproportionately more patient revisits after initial healthcare services via synchronous media. The effect is consistent across different empirical methods, such as matching and regression discontinuity design. Second, synchronous media improve both the health conditions of patients and the revenue of physicians and the platform. Third, we explore the underlying mechanisms and present evidence suggesting that the cue multiplicity (more likely than feedback immediacy) of synchronous media communication explains its positive effect. Finally, we examine the effect heterogeneity across overt and covert patient attributes and find that: (i) The media effect is significant for most mental conditions but not schizophrenia, suggesting that synchronous media are effective when online consultation matters in therapy; and (ii) the effect is more pronounced for patients at a higher risk of health deterioration, as predicted and ranked using machine learning techniques. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the interplay between communication media and telehealth service engagement and designing sustainable online platforms for all healthcare stakeholders.

Note:
Funding Information: None

Conflict of Interests: None

Ethical Approval: This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology.

Keywords: Digital Platform, Online Healthcare Service, Patient Revisit, Communication Media, Mental Health, Regression Discontinuity Design, Machine Learning

JEL Classification: D83, I12, L86, M15

Suggested Citation

Sun, Weiwei and Cheng, Zhi and Guo, Xitong, Initial Communication Media and Patient Revisit: Evidence from an Online Mental Healthcare Platform (March 20, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4394719 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4394719

Weiwei Sun

Harbin Institute of Technology ( email )

92 Xidazhi Street
Harbin, 150001
China

City University of Hong Kong (CityU) ( email )

Zhi Cheng (Contact Author)

London School of Economics - Department of Management ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Xitong Guo

Harbin Institute of Technology ( email )

huanghe road
harbin, heilongjiang 150001
China

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