Abstract
BackgroundWidespread adoption and continued developments in mobile health care technologies have led to the improved accessibility and quality of medical services. In China, WeChat, an instant messaging and social networking app released by the company Tencent, has developed a specific type of user account called WeChat official account (WOA), which is now widely adopted by hospitals in China. It enables health care providers to connect with local citizens, allowing them to, among other actions, send regular updates through mass circulation. However, with the diversity in function provided by WOA, little is known about its major constitution as well as the influence factors on the WeChat communication index (WCI). The WCI has been widely used in social media impact ranking with various types of WeChat content to fully reflect the dissemination and coverage of tweets as well as the maturity and impact of WOA.ObjectiveThere are two typical WOAs available to users, namely, WeChat subscription account (WSSA) and WeChat service account (WSVA). The biggest difference between them is the frequency of messages transmitted. This study aimed to explore the function constitution of WSVA adopted by top tertiary hospitals in China and the major contributors of the WCI score.MethodsA total of 681 top tertiary hospitals were selected from the Hospital Quality Monitoring System; the WOA of every top tertiary hospital was retrieved in the WeChat app. We divided core functional items of WSVAs using categorical principal component analysis. To elicit the factors that influenced the use of WSVA, quantile regression was employed to analyze the WCI score.ResultsFrom the 668 WOAs identified, adoption of WSVAs (543/668, 81.3%) was more than that of WSSAs (125/668, 18.7%). Functional items of WSVAs were categorized into four clusters: (1) hospital introduction, (2) medical services, (3) visiting assistants, and (4) others. With regard to the influence factors on the WCI, the impact of the activity index of WSVA and the total visiting number of outpatients and emergencies on WCI were statistically significant and positive in all quantiles. However, the year of certification, the type of hospital, the year of public hospital reform, and the number of beds merely affected the WCI at some quantiles.ConclusionsOur findings are considered helpful to tertiary hospitals in developing in-depth functional items that improve patient experience. The tertiary hospitals should take full advantage of times of posting and provide high-quality tweets to meet the various needs of patients.
Highlights
BackgroundMobile technologies and internet-connected devices hold great potential for improving health care delivery and services [1,2]
According to a report released by the Business Communications Company in 2017, the global market for mobile health technologies is expected to grow at an annual rate of 28.6% [3]
We developed a program based on EChart library, using the Java language, which demonstrated the geographical distribution of the WeChat official account (WOA) of tertiary hospitals in China
Summary
Mobile technologies and internet-connected devices hold great potential for improving health care delivery and services [1,2]. Social media, an important part of mobile apps, is defined by Kaplan and Haenlein [4] as “a set of Internet-based applications built on Web 2.0 ideas and technologies that allow for the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”. Social media has changed the nature of interaction between individuals and health care providers. With developments in internet capabilities, such as speed and widespread connectivity, social media has continued to manifest its influence. Widespread adoption and continued developments in mobile health care technologies have led to the improved accessibility and quality of medical services. In China, WeChat, an instant messaging and social networking app released by the company Tencent, has developed a specific type of user account called WeChat official account (WOA), which is widely adopted by hospitals in China.
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