Abstract：
Online medical consultation platforms enable patients to seek health advice from physicians across geographic regions. In this study, we analyze patterns of online consultation between patients and physicians. We examine the joint effects of regional medical resource disparity, geographic distance, and cultural differences between patients and physicians on patients\' decisions about which physicians they consult online. Using a unique dataset of city-to-city tuples based on 813,684 online consultation records and combining it with region-level data from multiple external sources, we find that while regional medical resource disparity drives patients from medically disadvantaged regions to seek online consultations with physicians from medically advantaged regions, geographic distance and cultural differences tend to constrain these consultations. We also find that cultural differences can amplify the impact of regional medical resource disparity, whereas geographic distance may lessen this effect. Further, we discover that the constraining effect of geographic distance is partly due to the online-to-offline nature of online medical consultations. Moreover, additional analyses suggest that physicians\' online reputation and information about physicians\' participation on the platform can help alleviate the negative effects of geographic distance and cultural differences. These findings hold significant implications for the allocation of medical resources and the formulation of healthcare policies.
摘要：
在线医疗咨询平台使患者能够从地理区域的医生那里寻求健康建议。在这项研究中,我们分析了患者和医生之间的在线咨询模式。我们考察了区域医疗资源差距的共同影响，地理距离,以及患者和医生之间的文化差异，决定他们在网上咨询哪些医生。使用基于813,684个在线咨询记录的城市到城市元组的独特数据集，并将其与来自多个外部来源的区域级数据相结合，我们发现，虽然区域医疗资源的差距驱使来自医疗弱势地区的患者寻求来自医疗优势地区的医生的在线咨询，地理距离和文化差异往往会限制这些磋商。我们还发现，文化差异会放大区域医疗资源差异的影响，而地理距离可能会减轻这种影响。Further,我们发现，地理距离的限制作用部分是由于在线医疗咨询的在线到离线性质。此外，额外的分析表明，医生在线声誉和医生参与平台的信息可以帮助减轻地理距离和文化差异的负面影响。这些发现对医疗资源的分配和医疗政策的制定具有重要意义。
