Network Effects in Health Information Exchange Growth
This article explored the network effects in HIE, or Healthcare Information Exchange. HIE is significant because it helps to increase healthcare quality and reduce costs and risks. The paper looked at the network effects between primary care physicians and specialists and how these effects factor into increasing their growth.
The researchers’ aim was to make a predictive model for HIE diffusion. The study found that primary care physicians had stronger network effects on specialists than the network effects specialists had on primary care physicians. The analysis of their results determined that HIE adoption within groups was significantly affected by the “word-of-mouth” effect as well as the increased value proposition. The study analyzed data to find patient flow between and within the two groups. The results from this study are aimed to be used in order to help develop strategies to promote and market HIE systems adoption within different groups of healthcare providers.
The study makes the point that governmental support of HIE systems are going to reduce in the future, so it is necessary for these platforms to have good stable business models. This study used networks in order to help create different marketing campaigns and help with designing pricing models. The model drawn from this study could be generalized and applied in other multisided market contexts.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262357903_Network_Effects_in_Health_Information_Exchange_Growth