Communicating with your Health Care Provider via E-mail: A Review of Issues and Cautions for Patients By: Peter J. Embi, MD, MS Contents: Using E-mail to Communicate with your Health Care Provider Introduction Using E-mail to Communicate with your Health Care Provider E-mail Advantages To E-mail or Not to E-mail Security & Confidentiality Checklist: What to Consider before using E-mail Conclusion & Links Some Advantages of E-mail E-mail offers some potential advantages to both patients and physicians over other forms of communication. The ability to send and reply to messages whenever it's convenient and have them arrive almost immediately is easily one of its greatest features. No more worries about calling at a bad time or having to stay on hold for lengthy periods. Although certain features of communicating in person or by telephone are lost when using E-mail (like the ability to sense emotional tones or moods), E-mail does allow one to choose words more carefully than might be possible on the telephone. It also allows for better organization of thoughts and the assurance that all issues will be covered. The ability to easily save and print messages for later reference is another benefit. Although misinterpretation can certainly occur via E-mail just as it can via the telephone, the ability to refer back to messages and re-read them removes one big cause of misinterpretation from the equation - poor memory. This increases the likelihood that the message is received as intended. Dr. Embi authored this site while a Medical Informatics Fellow at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. Created on November 18, 2001. Last Updated on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 © This page contains copyrighted material and may not to be copied or reproduced.

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