TY - JOUR
T1 - Online Health Communities and the Patient-Doctor Relationship
T2 - An Institutional Logics Perspective
AU - Bernadi, Roberta
AU - Wu, Philip Fei
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Taking an institutional logics perspective, this study investigates how “internet-informed” patients manage tensions between the logic of personal choice and the logic of medical professionalism as they navigate treatment decisions and the patient-doctor relationship. Based on 44 semi-structured interviews with members of an online health community for people with diabetes, this study finds that patients exercise a great deal of agency in evaluating healthcare options not only by activating the logic of personal choice but also by appropriating the logic of medical professionalism. Furthermore, patients are strategic in deciding what community advice to share with their doctor or nurse depending on the healthcare professionals' reaction to the logic of personal choice. In contrast to many previous studies that emphasise patient consumerism fuelled by information on the Internet, this study provides a more nuanced picture of patient-doctor relationship engendered by patients’ participation in online health communities.
AB - Taking an institutional logics perspective, this study investigates how “internet-informed” patients manage tensions between the logic of personal choice and the logic of medical professionalism as they navigate treatment decisions and the patient-doctor relationship. Based on 44 semi-structured interviews with members of an online health community for people with diabetes, this study finds that patients exercise a great deal of agency in evaluating healthcare options not only by activating the logic of personal choice but also by appropriating the logic of medical professionalism. Furthermore, patients are strategic in deciding what community advice to share with their doctor or nurse depending on the healthcare professionals' reaction to the logic of personal choice. In contrast to many previous studies that emphasise patient consumerism fuelled by information on the Internet, this study provides a more nuanced picture of patient-doctor relationship engendered by patients’ participation in online health communities.
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115494
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115494
M3 - Article
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 314
JO - Social Science & Medicine
JF - Social Science & Medicine
M1 - 115494
ER -
