Web 2.0 in Healthcare: State-of-the-Art in the German Health - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Oral Presentation at MIE 2011 Web 2.0 in Healthcare: State-of-the-Art in the German Health Insurance Landscape Mirko Kühne , Nadine Blinn, Christoph Rosenkranz, Markus Nüttgens Universität Hamburg | WISO Fakultät | Wirtschaftsinformatik 23. International Conference of the European Federation for Medical Informatics | August 30, 2011 Oslo

E-Health and Web 2.0 (1/2) § Demographic changes and rising healthcare demand mark the healthcare industry as one of the fastest growing markets worldwide § The German healthcare market is the third largest in the world § In the next 10 years, the healthcare market is expected to equal a share of approximately 15.5% of the German gross domestic product § New information technologies (IT) accompany this increasing healthcare demand. § Use of IT in healthcare is often understood as a means for improving workflows in medical and non-medical healthcare areas through increasing the efficiency of administration, logistics, and therapy processes § Depending on the author or audience, new terms for “electronic healthcare” such as “eHealthcare”, “E-Healthcare”, “E-Health” or “eHealth” are used § In this context we can observe a trend to connect healthcare, e-Health, and Web 2.0 MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 2

E-Health and Web 2.0 (2/2) § An emergence and broad adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and approaches in healthcare can be observed § Web 2.0 is generally associated with technologies that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web § Web 2.0 applications, particularly wikis, blogs, and podcasts , have been increasingly adopted by many online health-related professional and educational services § The Internet is increasingly used to search for health-related information such as treatment of diseases § Healthcare providers such as health insurers, health professionals, patient organizations, or the pharmaceutical industry are major suppliers of information Ø Against this background, our research examines the adoption and implementation of Web 2.0. Ø As a first step in our research, we conducted a complete inventory count in the German health insurance landscape. Ø We analysed the website of all German health insurance provider regarding their provision of Web 2.0 applications. MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 3

Web 2.0 in the German Health Insurance Landscape § In the German healthcare system, health insurances play a highly relevant role . § The German health insurance reform of 2007 requires everyone living in Germany to be insured. § There are two main types of health insurance – the public health insurance, which is also known as sickness funds, and the private health insurance § Approximately 85 % of the population is member of one of the 152 public health insurance § Public officers, self-employed people/entrepreneurs, and employees with a gross income above 49,500 EUR per year are usually privately insured by one of the 46 private insurances. MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 4

Methodology and Research Design § Method of “third-party web assessment” , application of “mystery user” approach § Web 2.0 Framework developed by Ganesh and Padmanabhuni (2007) § They developed a generic conceptual framework in order to structure the Web 2.0 landscape § A group of experts from the healthcare domain suggest the following technologies as relevant for the evaluation Content Collaboration Social Networks RSS Feeds Blog Facebook Podcats Wiki Twitter Chat Xing Social Tagging Social Networking § We analysed all 46 private and 152 public health insurances (198 complete data sets) MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 5

Results (1/3) § Content: RSS-Feeds are stronger used by the Public Insurances – Podcasts by the Private Companies § Collaboration: Public Insurances share a platform for Chat and Forum § Networks: Private Insurances are stronger organized in Social Networks MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 6

Results (2/3) – Number of used Applications § Regarding the number of used Web 2.0 applications (Content and Collaboration), we observed that public health insurances have more applications in use than private insurances. § On average, public insurances apply 3 applications – in contrast, private health insurances apply 2.5 applications. MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 7

Results (3/3) – Number of used Social Networks § With an average of 1.7, the private insurances are stronger organized in one of the three examined Social Networks: § 52 % of private insurances use one, § 26 % two and § 22 % all three Social Networks. § The public insurances use on average 1.4 Social Networks: § 66 % use one, § 29 % two and § only 5 % all three MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 8

Discussion (1/2) § Our findings provide first answers about the State-of-the-Art of the adoption and implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in the German health insurance landscape. § There is a wide spread diffusion and adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and Social Networks § We could show huge differences between the two insurance types regarding the adoption and implementation of the applications. § Even between the companies within their respective insurance types we observed large differences from “no use” of (no Web 2.0 applications are used) to “strong use” (7 applications are used). § But how can the differences be explained ? What aspects influence the adoption and implementation of Web 2.0 applications? § At present, there is no literature on the disparity of the differences in the adoption of IT and even not in the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies by public and private insurances. MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 9

Discussion (2/2) § Based on our research and interviews we suppose that the disparity of the differences is grounded in the business models of the two insurance types. § Private insurances are focusing on product sales whereas public insurances are primarily driven by the differentiation to other public insurances – because the product “public health insurance” with its services is unified by government. § We assume that public insurances try to differentiate themselves to others by providing special services such as Chats with experts or providing health information by RSS Feeds . § In contrast, the private insurances try to acquire new customers in Social Networks or explain their products via Podcasts. § To explain the differences regarding the adoption of Web 2.0 applications, we started a questionnaire to managers of health insurance companies to uncover the driving factors of Web 2.0 adoption § The size of the organization has been shown by several studies to impact the adoption of new technologies. § Therefore we heading to analyse official statistics about the number of insured people per company and compare these statistics with our results. MIE 2011 | Mirko Kühne | Slide 10