Online dialogue with medical professionals: An empirical study of an online "Ask the Doctor" platform

Ruojia Wang, Yun Huang, Xinyi Zhang, Yaxing Yao

Abstract: Highlights•The implementation of the AtD service in China constitutes an innovative way to improve the patient-doctor communication.•The Ask the Doctor service provides the follow-up communication pattern which is considered as a good supplement of Chinese traditional health care.•Several barriers, such as ethical problems, mismatched perceptions and expectations, cost-effectiveness issue still need further investigation.