促進網絡式醫療服務營運模式之探討

Abstract

近年來，醫療服務面臨諸多挑戰，例如不斷高漲的醫療成本以及不適當的資源配置，因此，身為接受醫療服務的我們，在獲取疾病相關知識或醫療資源時，或多或少都有感到無助的經驗。因應醫療產業的問題，Christensen等人(2009)提出促進網絡式(Facilitated Networks)的醫療服務創新以改善現況，促進網絡以促進個體之間的互動及資源交換為營運目的。雖然促進網絡式的創新營運模式在其他產業已有完整的討論，但在醫療產業方面的應用卻探討的較少，且隨著網路的普及，我們觀察到實體與虛擬網絡之整合可能為醫療產業帶來改變的極大潛能，因此本研究致力於探討促進網絡式的營運創新在醫療產業的應用。 在本研究中，我們稱醫療產業中經營促進網絡的組織為「醫療網絡促進者」，這些組織包含中華民國乳癌病友協會和線上病友社群網站PaitentsLikeMe等。本研究採用四種質性研究方法—文獻探討、個案分析、深度訪談和系統思考，探討促進網絡在醫療產業的應用，其中包含實體和虛擬網絡的案例，並將研究結果歸納，提出醫療促進網絡營運架構，以期為醫療網絡促進者建構未來經營的藍圖。 本研究發現網絡的虛實整合將能夠為醫療網絡促進者的服務帶來綜效，使得病人和其他相關的醫療服務提供者受惠。另外，完全依賴虛擬網絡經營的醫療網絡促進者是較不可行的，因為醫療服務對於專業的需求相對於其他產業高，沒有實體網絡的支持(例如：各大醫院的專業醫療團隊)，將會影響其服務品質。

Healthcare service has faced several challenges such as increasing cost and inappropriate resource allocation these days. Most of us have had the experience of feeling helpless when we were hoping to learn more on diseases or reach for healthcare resource. Christensen et al. (2009) has proposed a business model, Facilitated Network Business, which facilitates interaction and resource exchange between entities, to bring disruptive innovation in healthcare. However, its implication in healthcare has not been well-discussed but is expected to have great potential with the successful predecessors in other industries. Thus, this research aims to study the operations of facilitated network in healthcare. In this research, organizations that implemented facilitated network business in healthcare are referred as “healthcare network facilitators”, for example, Taiwan Breast Cancer Alliance and PatientsLikeMe. The operations of healthcare network facilitators, both offline and online, would be studied by four qualitative methods—literature review, case analysis, in-depth interview, and systems thinking. This research would propose a facilitated network framework for healthcare which is expected to provide managerial guidance for healthcare network facilitators. This research has found the synergy between offline and online networks could enhance the impact of healthcare network facilitators and thus benefit more patients and participants in healthcare service. Furthermore, relying entirely on online network without support of offline network to operate facilitated network business in healthcare could be challenging since expertise is highly-required in healthcare.