BACKGROUND
As a new way to share medical information, mHealth is currently booming, which provides a new solution for the improvement of physician-patient relationship. On the one hand, mHealth service breaks the limitation of time and space, reduces the cost of searching for information for patients, and makes medical service “at your fingertips”. However, on the other hand, it makes information overload and brings difficulties to patients' decision-making.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to discover the physician information that plays a key role in patient’s decision-making and to explore the mechanism by which this information contributes to patient’s decision-making. Therefore, enriching the theoretical basis of information selection and processing of patients, which play a guiding role in the future APPs construction and information management of mHealth from the perspective of improving patient’s satisfaction.
METHODS
In the study, eye tracking experiment is designed to discover key factors that influence a patient’s medical decision-making in choosing a physician. Then based on the SOR model and online trust theory, from the perspective of cognitive trust and affective trust, the patient expertise is used as the moderating variable to construct the research model of physician information on patient's medical decision-making.
RESULTS
The results of the eye tracking experiment reveal that there are 7 aspects of physician information which play a key role in patients' medical decision-making. The results of the research model reveal that (1) physician’s profile photo information affects patient's medical decision-making by positively influencing affective trust (P<.001); (2) physician’s non profile photo information affects patient's medical decision-making by positively influencing cognitive trust (P<.001); (3) patient-generated information affects patient's medical decision-making by positively affecting cognitive trust (P<.001) and affective trust (P<.001), and the patient expertise plays a positive moderating role in both paths (P=.04 and P=.01, respectively); and (4) cognitive trust and affective trust both positively affect patient’s medical decision-making but affective trust plays a more significant role (P<.001 and P<.001, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that 7 aspects of physician information are mainly resorted to by patients when they make their medical decision-making, and trust plays an important role in it. In addition, the level of patient expertise is an important variable in moderating physician information and patients’ trust.