E-mail, instant messaging (IM), video chat, and social networks—notably blogs and online communities such as Facebook and Twitter—have emerged as essential business and social communication tools. Electronic communication is speedy and efficient, crossing continents in seconds (e-mail) or, in some cases, nanoseconds (as with Google Wave and Skype technologies).
In this age of social media, even basic e-mail exchanges are already verging on obsolescence for people under age 30. More young people now use Twitter than e-mail. But whether messages are conveyed by e-mail or Twitter or Facebook, the advantage in patient-doctor exchanges is that they all originate at times convenient to the sender and recipient; appropriate phrasing can be thoughtfully chosen; concerns can be reflected on; and decisions can be considered before being uttered. Standard answers and qualifications to commonly asked questions can be composed in advance, which saves time and trouble for physicians.
Yet, in 2004, fewer than 10% of the US public was communicating with their doctors electronically. In the United States and Europe, only 20% to 25% of doctors were using e-mail and, then, only to communicate with select patients. A survey conducted by Manhattan Research found that the figure had gone up to 31% by the first quarter of 2007.
Abstract
Seeman, Mary V.; Seeman, Marc; Seeman, Bob; Seeman, Neil, Psychiatric Times, 27(2)
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