The Dynamic Impacts of Online Healthcare Community on Physician Altruism: A Hidden Markov Model.

Physician altruism is not only a key foundation of modern medical professionalism, but also a critical component in the theoretical health economics study. There is considerable interest in understanding the impacts of contemporary healthcare technology on physician altruism. In this paper, we seek to understand the dynamic influence of various motivating mechanisms on an online healthcare community (OHC). We characterize the dynamics of physician altruism on an OHC using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) that allows the effects of motivating mechanisms to change across individuals and over time. We focus on the motivating mechanisms that give physicians social and economic returns. Our results paint a dynamic picture of physician altruism that is seldomly captured in previous studies. The findings are also essential to understanding the nature of physician altruism and the mechanism through which it can be influenced. Implications for the community owners and policy makers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]