Physician virtual community and medical decision making : Mediating role of knowledge sharing

Purpose – Healthcare (HC) utilizes informatics to provide its services through information technology (IT) where social network is a promising initiative to aid medical decision-making (DM) quality. Even though HC is a globally expensive investment and a complex service-oriented industry, it still suffers from quality due to frequently occurring medical errors. In order to reduce medical errors, medical DM needs to be improved. This research has participated in this effort by exploring social capital theory (SCT) within a virtual community of practice (VCoP), HC knowledge management (KM) process – knowledge sharing quality and medical DM quality. Design/methodology/approach – Traditional and up-to-date HC-related and non-HC-related theoretical, empirical and case study-based literature review has been thoroughly analyzed to hence support the inter-relationships between the theoretical constructs being: SCT, knowledge sharing quality and medical DM quality presented as a conceptual framework. This conceptual framework is based on propositions derived from thorough literature review theory to relate between each of the constructs. Findings – SCT has the potential to facilitate medical DM within a VCoP, as well as, knowledge sharing quality plays a mediating and facilitating role between SCT and medical DM quality. Research limitations/implications – The study has significantly focussed on SCT, which is actually part of the social sciences and anthropology discipline. In parallel, this research also analyzed the literature that pertained to the value of a VCoP to improve medical DM quality. Practical implications – The study's focus on SCT, knowledge sharing and medical DM; hence promotes future empirical research findings to be compared within a particular HC VC; from a case study point of view. Originality/value – The paper adds value to the large body of intellectual knowledge by enhancing the conception of medical DM quality to improve HC quality. Medical DM is a soft area of research. This research has introduced a new avenue on which HC quality can be improved by reducing medical errors, from the perspective of social computing and medical DM quality and the mediating role of knowledge sharing quality.