Making Sense of Chinese Telemedicine Practices: The Role of Physician Identities

Telemedicine is associated with high hopes regarding its potential to deliver healthcare services to less developed regions, such as rural areas. While available evidence generally supports such hopes, recent findings point to a possible negative overall effect. To contribute to this literature, we aim to open the black box as which telemedicine is generally treated in current research. We look at who the actual participants in online consultations are and how they actually interact, using five recorded online consultations from South China. These cases are special because, in addition to a physician and a patient, so-called village doctors play a crucial role. Since professional identities are known to have a significant impact on how doctors use IT, we interpret these consultations through an identity lens. We find that professional identities are indeed crucial for how these online consultations work, suggesting that macro-level studies should pay more attention to this issue.