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Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study

BACKGROUND: Online patient communities are becoming more prevalent as a resource to help patients take control of their health. However, online patient communities experience challenges that require active moderation. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the challenges of sustaining a thriving on...

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Autores principales: Skousen, Tanner, Safadi, Hani, Young, Colleen, Karahanna, Elena, Safadi, Sami, Chebib, Fouad
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7109609/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32181743
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15983
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author Skousen, Tanner
Safadi, Hani
Young, Colleen
Karahanna, Elena
Safadi, Sami
Chebib, Fouad
author_facet Skousen, Tanner
Safadi, Hani
Young, Colleen
Karahanna, Elena
Safadi, Sami
Chebib, Fouad
author_sort Skousen, Tanner
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Online patient communities are becoming more prevalent as a resource to help patients take control of their health. However, online patient communities experience challenges that require active moderation. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the challenges of sustaining a thriving online patient community and the moderation practices employed to address the challenges and manage the online patient community successfully. METHODS: An inductive case study of Mayo Clinic Connect was analyzed using the grounded theory methodology. Insights for the analysis were obtained from semistructured interviews with community managers and community members. Secondary data sources, such as community management documents, observational meeting notes, and community postings, were used to validate and triangulate the findings. RESULTS: We identified four challenges unique to online patient communities. These challenges include passion, nonmedical advice, personal information, and community participation. We identified five categories of practices that community members used to address these challenges and moderate the community successfully. These practices include instructive, semantic, connective, administrative, and policing practices. CONCLUSIONS: Successful moderation in online patient communities requires a multitude of practices to manage the challenges that arise in these communities. Some practices are implemented as preventive measures while other practices are more interventive. Additionally, practices can come from both authority figures and exemplary members.
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spelling pubmed-71096092020-04-09 Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study Skousen, Tanner Safadi, Hani Young, Colleen Karahanna, Elena Safadi, Sami Chebib, Fouad J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Online patient communities are becoming more prevalent as a resource to help patients take control of their health. However, online patient communities experience challenges that require active moderation. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the challenges of sustaining a thriving online patient community and the moderation practices employed to address the challenges and manage the online patient community successfully. METHODS: An inductive case study of Mayo Clinic Connect was analyzed using the grounded theory methodology. Insights for the analysis were obtained from semistructured interviews with community managers and community members. Secondary data sources, such as community management documents, observational meeting notes, and community postings, were used to validate and triangulate the findings. RESULTS: We identified four challenges unique to online patient communities. These challenges include passion, nonmedical advice, personal information, and community participation. We identified five categories of practices that community members used to address these challenges and moderate the community successfully. These practices include instructive, semantic, connective, administrative, and policing practices. CONCLUSIONS: Successful moderation in online patient communities requires a multitude of practices to manage the challenges that arise in these communities. Some practices are implemented as preventive measures while other practices are more interventive. Additionally, practices can come from both authority figures and exemplary members. JMIR Publications 2020-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC7109609/ /pubmed/32181743 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15983 Text en ©Tanner Skousen, Hani Safadi, Colleen Young, Elena Karahanna, Sami Safadi, Fouad Chebib. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 17.03.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Skousen, Tanner
Safadi, Hani
Young, Colleen
Karahanna, Elena
Safadi, Sami
Chebib, Fouad
Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study
title Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study
title_full Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study
title_fullStr Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study
title_full_unstemmed Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study
title_short Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study
title_sort successful moderation in online patient communities: inductive case study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7109609/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32181743
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15983
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