A Conceptual Understanding Of Health Virtual Communities

Abstract

The rapid dispersion in Web 2.0 technologies have led to a paradigm shift where people increasingly gain health-related information and support through virtual communities. The significance of health virtual communities has been proven by the positive impact they bring on the lives of the patients and their families members. This paper presents a conceptual understanding of virtual communities which promote a new platform for health communication. It provides a brief discussion on the background of virtual communities and its sub topics, the health virtual communities. The definition and categories of virtual communities are reviewed, as well as main issues on participation of doctors in the health based communities, in an effort to understand how their participation in health virtual communities may affect their different life domains, especially the work and family life, in the near future.