IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/vikjou/v46y2021i2p86-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Looking for Medical Advice in Everyday Digital Spaces: A Qualitative Study of Indians Connecting with Physicians on Facebook

Author

Listed:
  • Smeeta Mishra

Abstract

In a world afflicted by COVID-19, many people consult doctors through a digital interface or over the phone, as face-to-face consultations are almost impossible during a lockdown. The Medical Council of India and the NITI Aayog, a policy think tank, formulated new guidelines to empower medical practitioners to practice telemedicine in India in March 2020. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world and made digital consultations a necessity in specific cases, academic studies located within a health promotion framework in Western contexts indicated that patients have been very much interested in using social media tools to communicate with their physicians. Previous studies have also highlighted the advantages of information and communication technologies for patient–doctor interaction. Since changes introduced by digital health technologies have primarily been analysed from such health promotion perspectives that often adopt a ‘techno-utopian’ lens ( Lupton, 2013 ), it becomes imperative to critically interrogate how such changes construct specific subjectivities and shape our understandings of health and normative healthcare practices. Specifically, scholars have highlighted how social media platforms and apps act as ‘performative devices’ ( Johnson, 2014 ) that influence ‘everyday management of illness and health’ and help create the ideal of the ‘digitally engaged patient’ ( Lupton, 2013 ). In the Indian context, media reports highlight a growing trend in the use of social media platforms and apps by physicians and patients. However, academic research on such emerging phenomena in this country is still scarce. This exploratory study examines why some Indians connect with physicians on a social media platform such as Facebook, the nature of communication between them and their understandings of health. It uses in-depth interviews and draws upon neoliberal governmentality as a theoretical anchor. The findings show how the internalization of neoliberal values and assumptions are associated with participants’ search for lifestyle and medical advice in everyday digital spaces such as Facebook. This study strives to extend the concept of neoliberal governmentality to performances in everyday digital spaces such as Facebook. In terms of practical implications, the results of the study highlight the critical need for policies that regulate the medical content available in social media spaces. Most importantly, some of the issues highlighted by the participants in this study can help policymakers take adequate precautions while formulating guidelines on digital consultations, especially during pandemics and their aftermath when there is tremendous pressure to promote telemedicine.

Suggested Citation

  • Smeeta Mishra, 2021. "Looking for Medical Advice in Everyday Digital Spaces: A Qualitative Study of Indians Connecting with Physicians on Facebook," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 46(2), pages 86-98, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:vikjou:v:46:y:2021:i:2:p:86-98
    DOI: 10.1177/02560909211023163
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02560909211023163
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/02560909211023163?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sillence, Elizabeth & Briggs, Pam & Harris, Peter Richard & Fishwick, Lesley, 2007. "How do patients evaluate and make use of online health information?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1853-1862, May.
    2. Sophia Alice Johnson, 2014. "“Maternal Devices”, Social Media and the Self-Management of Pregnancy, Mothering and Child Health," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-21, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rajesh Chandwani, 2021. "Stakeholders in the Indian Healthcare Sector," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 46(2), pages 65-70, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wu, Haitao & Ba, Ning & Ren, Siyu & Xu, Lu & Chai, Jingxia & Irfan, Muhammad & Hao, Yu & Lu, Zhi-Nan, 2022. "The impact of internet development on the health of Chinese residents: Transmission mechanisms and empirical tests," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Alexis M. McCarroll & Bree E. Holtz & Dar Meshi, 2021. "Searching for Social Media Addiction: A Content Analysis of Top Websites Found through Online Search Engines," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Carolina Barrios Laborda & Dayana Pinzón Callejas, 2016. "Salud y el uso de Internet: Un estudio de la relación médico-paciente," Revista Economía y Región, Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, vol. 10(2), pages 219-240, December.
    4. Deborah Lupton, 2017. "‘It Just Gives Me a Bit of Peace of Mind’: Australian Women’s Use of Digital Media for Pregnancy and Early Motherhood," Societies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-13, September.
    5. Baki Cakici & Pedro Sanches, 2014. "Detecting the Visible: The Discursive Construction of Health Threats in a Syndromic Surveillance System Design," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-15, July.
    6. Rosa Scardigno & Carmela Sportelli & Paolo Giovanni Cicirelli & Angelica Lops & Francesca D’Errico, 2024. "Online Mothering: The Empowering Nature of a Hashtag Movement Founded on Social Sharing and Stereotype Deconstruction," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, May.
    7. Anstey Watkins, Jocelyn Olivia Todd & Goudge, Jane & Gómez-Olivé, Francesc Xavier & Griffiths, Frances, 2018. "Mobile phone use among patients and health workers to enhance primary healthcare: A qualitative study in rural South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 139-147.
    8. Dedding, Christine & van Doorn, Roesja & Winkler, Lex & Reis, Ria, 2011. "How will e-health affect patient participation in the clinic? A review of e-health studies and the current evidence for changes in the relationship between medical professionals and patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 49-53, January.
    9. Deborah Lupton, 2014. "Apps as Artefacts: Towards a Critical Perspective on Mobile Health and Medical Apps," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-17, October.
    10. Oluwaseun I. Obasola & Ojo Melvin Agunbiade, 2016. "Online Health Information Seeking Pattern Among Undergraduates in a Nigerian University," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440166, March.
    11. Eun Kyoung Yun & Hyeoun‐Ae Park, 2010. "Consumers’ disease information–seeking behaviour on the Internet in Korea," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(19‐20), pages 2860-2868, October.
    12. Griffiths, Frances & Cave, Jonathan & Boardman, Felicity & Ren, Justin & Pawlikowska, Teresa & Ball, Robin & Clarke, Aileen & Cohen, Alan, 2012. "Social networks – The future for health care delivery," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2233-2241.
    13. Esther Vries & Petra Denig & Sieta T. Vries & Taco B. M. Monster & Jacqueline G. Hugtenburg & Peter G. M. Mol, 2020. "Drug Safety Issues Covered by Lay Media: A Cohort Study of Direct Healthcare Provider Communications Sent between 2001 and 2015 in The Netherlands," Drug Safety, Springer, vol. 43(7), pages 677-690, July.
    14. Petersen, Alan & Schermuly, Allegra & Anderson, Alison, 2022. "‘A platform for goodness, not for badness’: The heuristics of hope in patients' evaluations of online health information," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    15. Tian, Xiaoli & Zhang, Sai, 2022. "Expert or experiential knowledge? How knowledge informs situated action in childcare practices," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    16. Luo, Xiaoyi & Pu, Haixia & Wang, Shaobin & Zhong, Dijun & Liu, Feng & Li, Zhen, 2024. "Influence of Internet use on Chinese residents’ health: The mediating role of health knowledge," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Ageeva, Elena & Melewar, T.C. & Foroudi, Pantea & Dennis, Charles, 2019. "Cues adopted by consumers in examining corporate website favorability: An empirical study of financial institutions in the UK and Russia," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 15-32.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:vikjou:v:46:y:2021:i:2:p:86-98. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.