TY - GEN
T1 - Examining peer-to-peer and patient-provider interactions on a social media community facilitating ask the doctor services
AU - Nobles, Alicia L.
AU - Leas, Eric C.
AU - Dredze, Mark
AU - Ayers, John W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Ask the Doctor (AtD) services provide patients the opportunity to seek medical advice using online platforms. While these services represent a new mode of healthcare delivery, study of these online health communities and how they are used is limited. In particular, it is unknown if these platforms replicate existing barriers and biases in traditional healthcare delivery across demographic groups. We present an analysis of AskDocs, a subreddit that functions as a public AtD platform on social media. We examine the demographics of users, the health topics discussed, if biases present in offline healthcare settings exist on this platform, and how empathy is expressed in interactions between users and physicians. Our findings suggest a number of implications to enhance and support peer-to-peer and patient-provider interactions on online platforms.
AB - Ask the Doctor (AtD) services provide patients the opportunity to seek medical advice using online platforms. While these services represent a new mode of healthcare delivery, study of these online health communities and how they are used is limited. In particular, it is unknown if these platforms replicate existing barriers and biases in traditional healthcare delivery across demographic groups. We present an analysis of AskDocs, a subreddit that functions as a public AtD platform on social media. We examine the demographics of users, the health topics discussed, if biases present in offline healthcare settings exist on this platform, and how empathy is expressed in interactions between users and physicians. Our findings suggest a number of implications to enhance and support peer-to-peer and patient-provider interactions on online platforms.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099601301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85099601301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85099601301
T3 - Proceedings of the 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2020
SP - 464
EP - 475
BT - Proceedings of the 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2020
PB - AAAI Press
T2 - 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2020
Y2 - 8 June 2020 through 11 June 2020
ER -