EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF BLOG VISIT EXPERIENCE ON RELATIONSHIP QUALITY: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION WITH A CARDIAC SURGERY MEDICAL BLOG SITE Wen-Jang (Kenny) Jih (Faculty) Computer Information Systems

This research explores the use of blog, a Web 2.0-based communication channel, for improving the relationship between the consumer and the provider of a highly specialized medical service, cardiac surgery. A medical blog was created to facilitate open communication of health concerns and professional knowledge between a cardiac surgery department of a major medical center in Taiwan and their patients. An outcome of a collaboration effort between an academic research team and the physicians of the medical center, this blog was expected to help cardiac illness patients and their families in coping with the anxiety caused by their health problems and the subsequent treatment process. This research develops a conceptual framework and analyzes empirical evidence to test assumptions about the benefits of blogs in the medical domain. Visitors of our medical blog were surveyed regarding their website visit experience. Their responses were analyzed as to how the website's customer relationship management practices affected visitors' visit experience, their relationship learning effect, and how these latter two variables in turn affected the quality of patient relationship with the physician. It is hypothesized that the website's customer relationship management practice significantly affects blog visit experiences and relationship learning. It is also hypothesized that blog visit experience has significant impact on relationship quality and relationship learning. The results of data analysis using the structural equations modeling analysis confirmed most of the hypothesized relationships between the researched constructs.