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 To E-mail or Not to E-mail E-mail can be an ideal medium of communication for certain for certain matters that don't require a physician's visit or urgent attention. Examples include refilling prescriptions, some lab results (non-senstive ones), appointment reminders, insurance questions, communicating follow-up results, and getting answers to questions following a visit. E-mail is an inappropriate means of communicating certain messages. Urgent matters should NOT be communicated by E-mail, neither should information about sensitive or highly confidential matters (see security issues). Consider also that there may be other times when E-mail is not the best mode of communication. Telephone and in-person communication may still be the most appropriate means to use in many situations, and should certainly be considered as necessary back-ups should you not find E-mail communication successful or satisfactory. 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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