Zummo Marianna Lya
Commun Med. 2015;12(2-3):187-98. doi: 10.1558/cam.31897.
This paper questions the nature of the communicative event that takes place in online contexts between doctors and web-users, showing computer-mediated linguistic norms and discussing the nature of the participants’ roles. Based on an analysis of 1005 posts occurring between doctors and the users of health service websites, I analyse how doctor–patient communication is affected by the medium and how health professionals overcome issues concerning the virtual medical visit. Results suggest that (a) online medical answers offer a different service from that expected by users, as doctors cannot always fulfill patient requests, and (b) net consultations use aspects of traditional doctor–patient exchange and yet present a language and a style that are affected by the computer-mediated environment. Additionally, it seems that this new form leads to a different model of doctor–patient relationship. The findings are intended to provide new insights into web-based discourse in doctor–patient communication and to demonstrate the emergence of a new style in medical communication.
本文对医生与网络用户在在线环境中发生的交流事件的性质提出质疑，展示了计算机介导的语言规范，并讨论了参与者角色的性质。基于对医疗服务网站医生与用户之间1005条帖子的分析，我分析了医患沟通如何受到媒介的影响，以及健康专业人员如何克服虚拟医疗问诊相关问题。结果表明：（a）在线医疗回复提供的服务与用户期望的不同，因为医生并非总能满足患者的请求；（b）网络咨询采用了传统医患交流的一些方面，但呈现出受计算机介导环境影响的语言和风格。此外，这种新形式似乎导致了一种不同的医患关系模式。这些发现旨在为医患沟通中的网络话语提供新的见解，并展示医疗沟通中一种新风格的出现。
