Electronic mail communication between physicians and patients: a review of challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Although promising benefits hold for email communication between physicians and patients in terms of lowering the costs of health care while maintaining or improving the quality of disease management and health promotion, physician use of email with patients is still low and lags behind the willingness of patients to communicate with their physicians through email. There is also a discrepancy between physicians' willingness and actual practice of email communication. Several factors may explain these discrepancies. They include physicians differ in their experience and attitude towards information technology; some may not be convinced that patients appreciate, need and can communicate by email with their doctors; others are still waiting for robust evidence on service performance and efficiency in addition to patient satisfaction and outcome that support such practice; and many are reluctant to do so because of perceived barriers. This report is a review of the literature on the readiness for and adoption of physician-patient email communication, and how can challenges be or have been addressed. The need for Governmental support and directives for email communication to move forward is iterated, and opportunities for future research are pointed out.

Enhancing Asthma Patients' Self-Management through Smartphone-Based Application: Design, Usability Evaluation, and Educational Intervention

“…16,46 In a study by Geryk et al (2016), the parents of children with asthma reported "recording data, physician communication, and sharing data via e-mail" and physicians reported "reminder for physician appointment" as the most important functionalities of the applications. 47 But because of the difference in targeting groups, asynchronous communication via e-mail and lack of sufficient time for physicians to connect to the internet, 48,49 this functionality was different in our study than in previous studies. Therefore, in this study, e-mail is not a good medium for interactions between patients and physicians in the viewpoints of experts.…”

Informing NHS policy in ‘digital-first primary care’: a rapid evidence synthesis

“…Several studies identified technical barriers to the implementation of digital models of engagement, with one author citing 'the heavily firewalled, low bandwidth systems of the NHS' [Atherton H, Brant H, Ziebland S, Bikker A, Campbell J, Gibson A, et al The potential of alternatives to face-to-face consultation in general practice, and the impact on different patient groups: a mixed-methods case study. Health Serv Deliv Res 2018;6 (20). https://doi.org/10.3310/hsdr06200].…”

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“…13,40 The increased utilisation of telephonic and e-mail communications may be attributable to widespread availability and use of technology by the general population, changing expectations for availability and timeliness of response, 45,46 and growing (but still low) physician comfort with electronic communications within their care processes. 47 However, these patient care options are not traditionally reimbursed by third party payers; we did not ask physicians if they were charging ancillary care fees for these services. Greater use of group visits was also observed.…”