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ISDS Prof. Denny Yin Co-authors Paper on Effectiveness of Online Medical Sites
By Keith Morelli
TAMPA (February 14, 2020) -- In a world that is increasingly looking for answers online, the sick and injured now are relying more and more on the Internet to address their health problems. A recent survey of 1,700 American adults found that 73 percent had acquired health-related information from the Internet.
In fact, more patients consult the Internet鈥檚 medical Q&A sites as their first source to find out about their health conditions before pursuing a professional diagnosis.
鈥淚t is clear that the Internet and constantly evolving social technologies are transforming not only the health care industry,鈥� said Denny Yin, assistant professor in the Muma College of Business鈥� Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department, 鈥渂ut also how people seek health information and knowledge.鈥�
But do answers from Q&A sites, such as Yahoo! Answers and Quora, really help? What kinds of 鈥渨isdom鈥� from 鈥渢he crowd鈥� provide the most value for cyber patients? Yin recently co-authored an extensive study looking at online health Q&A sites that seek to provide helpful answers to an online audience who may never see a doctor鈥檚 face.
鈥淲hile a lot of people believe that the medical information they obtain online is trustworthy and of good quality, this is simply not true,鈥� Yin said. 鈥淚nstead, some answers are more helpful and valuable than others.鈥�
The key, said Yin, is to identify and promote 鈥渉elpful answers鈥� that can benefit cyber patients and Q&A platforms relying on the 鈥渨isdom of the crowd.鈥�
Language, in the question and answer, matters
Most assume that a helpful answer should come from the content of answer itself, Yin said. For example, answer contributors may intuitively believe that concrete answers, such as 鈥渁 stethoscope,鈥� are more relatable and credible than abstract ones, like 鈥渁 medical device.鈥� Those contributors intending to help others may frame their answers in a more concrete manner as a result.
However, Yin and his collaborators speculate that the value of answers perceived by cyber patients is not driven by answer content alone, but by how much an answer鈥檚 language aligns with the answer鈥檚 circumstances.
At medical Q&A sites, each answer addresses a specific question related to a specific disease. When readers consult an answer, their value assessment of the answer is not determined by the answer's content alone, but also by environmental cues surrounding the answer, such as signals from the question and the disease. The reason is that an answer鈥檚 question and associated disease might shape cyber patients鈥� mindsets as they read and make sense of the answer. For example, a reader interested in treatments of a chronic disease might develop an abstract mindset and thus prefer abstract answers to concrete answers. Yin and his collaborators propose that when an answer鈥檚 language aligns or 鈥渇its鈥� with characteristics of the question or disease, the answer will be perceived by readers as more helpful.
Research draws on 30,000 questions and answers
To test this idea, Yin and his co-authors collected data from more than 30,000 questions and answers from the most accessed website for health information, WebMD. They found empirical support for the 鈥渇it鈥� idea. For example, when the question was framed using concrete language (e.g., a stethoscope) or associated with an acute disease (e.g., a common cold) cyber patients prefer concrete answers. However, when the question used abstract language (e.g., a medical device) or inquired about a chronic disease (e.g., diabetes) patients prefer abstract answers.
鈥淢ost answer contributors probably hold the simplistic view that answers written in a certain way are more valuable,鈥� Yin said, 鈥渂ut they should be aware of the subtle role of contextual cues in readers鈥� judgment of the answer鈥檚 value.鈥�
Thus, he said, online Q&A platforms 鈥渟hould educate content contributors about the pitfalls of following simple formulas and the diversity of readers looking for answers of different questions.鈥�
Because of the substantial impacts that online medical information could have on people鈥檚 health-related decisions, 鈥渁 deeper understanding of people鈥檚 value judgment of such information is especially important for patients, medical institutions and society at large,鈥� Yin concluded in the paper.
Titled 鈥淢ore than Words in Medical Question-and-Answer Sites: A Content鈥揅ontext Congruence Perspective,鈥� the article is co-authored with Chih-Hung Peng from the National Chengchi University in Taiwan and Han Zhang from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and it has been accepted for publication in the premium information systems journal, Information Systems Research.