Internet Usage, Physician Performances and Patient's Trust in Physician During Diagnoses: Investigating Both Pre-Use and Not-Use Internet Groups

Abstract

Do patients' Internet searches of disease information and physician performances affect patients' trust in physicians during diagnoses? This study proposes a research model concerning the effect of whether patients use Internet and Internet usage on perceived physician performances (including perceived communication time, explanation quality and physician attitude) and on trust. Our empirical study of over 650 subjects in China suggests that for pre-use Internet patients, they feel longer communication time but less quality of physicians' explanation in diagnosis process. There is no significant discrepancy of perceived physician attitude between two sample groups. We also demonstrate that whether patients search healthcare information through the Internet impacts their trust in physicians through physicians' explanation quality as well as the communication time. Moreover, this study indicates that physician performances in a diagnosis process play a dominant role in gaining patients' trust, while the professional status of a physician (i.e. expert) will help improve trust when patients feel warm attitude from physicians. However, longer search time on the Internet will weaken the effect of communication time and explanation quality on trust. Overall, this study suggests that the impact of the physician performances and Internet search are not trivial to physician-patient trust, but even in the high-tech age, high-touch remains an important factor to physician-patient trust.