Are health e-mavens the new patient influencers?

Even though the healthcare industry is usually considered a rather traditional and slowly evolving sector, change is happening. Digitalization is transforming the way of obtaining medical advice and treatment and the Internet has become a key source for the seeking of healthcare information. It has...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Díaz Martín, Ana María, Schmitz, Anne, Yagüe Guillén, M. Jesús
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/693685
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/693685
https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00779
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:e-Mavenism
eHealth
Health e-Mavenism
Healthcare
Patient influencer
Economía
Descripción
Sumario:Even though the healthcare industry is usually considered a rather traditional and slowly evolving sector, change is happening. Digitalization is transforming the way of obtaining medical advice and treatment and the Internet has become a key source for the seeking of healthcare information. It has allowed people to turn into more active collaborators in matters of their own health by enabling them to easily search and share information with other patients. Although research points out the growing importance of user-generated content in many sectors and its positive impact on information credibility, trust, engagement, and, ultimately, customer behavior (Malthouse et al., 2016), there is a lack of attention to this topic in healthcare. In this brief review, we address this gap by analyzing the role of health e-mavens, which are a particular type of influencers that possesses both expertise and online social influence. We lastly illustrate possible benefits of their impact on other to the different parties involved and affected by this phenomenon.