Social Features in Online Communities for Healthcare Consumers --- A Review

Authors:
Annie Y. Lau;Trevor M. Kwok
Affiliations:
Centre for Health Informatics, University of New South Wales, UNSW, Sydney, Australia NSW 2052;Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, UNSW, Sydney, Australia NSW 2052
Venue:
OCSC '09 Proceedings of the 3d International Conference on Online Communities and Social Computing: Held as Part of HCI International 2009
Year:
2009

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Abstract

This review provides a snapshot of the literature in online communities for healthcare consumers. It summarizes the features commonly used by healthcare consumers in online communities: seeking and sharing personal experiences, opinions and answers, and exchanging social support. This review also identifies behaviors that are commonly practiced by healthcare consumers but are not readily supported in current online communities. These include collaborative healthcare decision-making, conducting social comparison, and lurking in online communities. This review concludes by emphasizing the importance of trust, privacy and safety when designing an online community for healthcare consumers, particularly in the age of Web 2.0.