Web-based medical service: Technology attractiveness, medical creditability, information source, and behavior intention

Abstract

Background: Web-based medical service (WBMS), a cooperative relationship between medical service and Internet technology, has been called one of the most innovative services of the 21st century. However, its business promotion and implementation in the medical industry have neither been expected nor executed. Few studies have explored this phenomenon from the viewpoint of inexperienced patients. Objective: The primary goal of this study was to explore whether technology attractiveness, medical creditability, and diversified medical information sources could increase users' behavior intention. Methods: This study explored the effectiveness of web-based medical service by using three situations to manipulate sources of medical information. A total of 150 questionnaires were collected from people who had never used WBMS before. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the mediation and moderated-mediation effects. Results: Perceived ease of use (P=.002) and perceived usefulness (P=.001) significantly enhance behavior intentions. Medical credibility is a mediator (P=.03), but the relationship does not significantly differ under diverse manipulative information channels (P=.39). Conclusions: Medical credibility could explain the extra variation between technology attractiveness and behavior intention, but not significant under different moderating effect of medical information sources.