Abstract: We studied a new impactful type of platform that has become a dominant online channel for patient-doctor interaction in China. We found that the irrational rating behavior leads to patients adopting bad medical advice, questioning the effectiveness of such a platform as a complement to the actual hospital visit. With the help of the neural network model, we analyzed patients’ rating strategy and developed guidelines for physicians that can increase the probability of a patient selecting good advice.
Speaker Bio: Chen Chen is a 4th year PhD student in the Information Systems department at Questrom School of Business, Boston University. His research interest is in behaviors of online community, particularly 1) the rationality/irrationality of crowd and how it impacts the performance of the platforms; 2) the polarization and biasness of the online community and the evolution of biasness.