Robert Sadaty, KevinMD
“A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reviewed the emerging role of email in healthcare, arguing that doctors should more aggressively offer their patients the option to communicate with each other through email. Unlike other professionals in the United States, doctors have generally resisted the adoption of email into their practices.
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MedicalXpress
“Many working professionals wouldn’t want to imagine what their job would be like without email. However, many physicians go about their profession with little or no email communication with patients.
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Joseph C. Kvedar, Sam Bierstock, Wall Street Journal
“Email has been so commonplace for so long that some people consider it nearly obsolete. But in the health-care profession, its use for communications between doctors and their patients is still controversial.
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EurekAlert!
“E-counselling can significantly lower blood pressure, improve lifestyle and enhance quality of life, says Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher Dr. Robert Nolan.
“E-counselling has the potential to strengthen the effects of medical treatment for high blood pressure,” Dr. Nolan told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, which is co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. “We found that it led to an almost double decrease in the blood pressure levels of participants compared to those who did not receive the e-counselling.”
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Gordon J. The Nursing Clinics of North America, 46(3)
Patients using the Internet are inundated with abundant information on health care that may be correct and may be incorrect. It is becoming the role of clinicians to enable patients to educate themselves by providing information about accurate and reliable Web sites, and to answer questions from literature that patients encounter.
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Wu R te al, J Med Internet Res, 13(3)
Background:
Communication between clinicians is critical to providing quality patient care but is often hampered by limitations of current systems. Smartphones such as BlackBerrys may improve communication, but studies of these technologies have been limited to date.
Objective: Our objectives were to describe how smartphones were adopted for clinical communication within general internal medical wards and determine their impact on team effectiveness and communication.
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Jeff Livingston, KevinMD
“I commented on a blog post recently that cited a recent study called “Secure web messaging between patients and doctors: Not well received.” I was pleased to see that other professionals who left comments had the same reaction I did to the study: it is simply not accurate.
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Hsiao AL et al, Pediatrics, 127(2)
BACKGROUND
Although e-mail may be an efficient clinician-patient communication tool, standard e-mail is not adequately secure to meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines. For this reason, firewall-secured electronic messaging systems have been developed for use in health care. Impact and usability of these secure systems have not been broadly assessed.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of a secure electronic messaging system implemented for a pediatric subspecialty clinic.
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Tjora A et al, J Med Internet Res, 7(2)
BACKGROUND
Direct electronic communication between patients and physicians has the potential to empower patients and improve health care services. Communication by regular email is, however, considered a security threat in many countries and is not recommended. Systems which offer secure communication have now emerged. Unlike regular email, secure systems require that users authenticate themselves. However, the authentication steps per se may become barriers that reduce use.
OBJECTIVES
The objective was to study the experiences of patients who were using a secure electronic communication system. The focus of the study was the users’ privacy versus the usability of the system.
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Menachemi N et al, J Med Internet Res, 13(1)
BACKGROUND
Improved communication from physician- patient emailing is an important element of patient centeredness. Physician-patient email use has been low; and previous data from Florida suggest that physicians who email with patients rarely implement best-practice guidelines designed to protect physicians and patients.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to examine whether email use with patients has changed over time (2005-2008) by using two surveys of Florida physicians, and to determine whether physicians have more readily embraced the best-practice guidelines in 2008 versus 2005. Lastly, we explored the 2008 factors associated with email use with patients and determined whether these factors changed relative to 2005.
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eGovMonitor
“It has been nearly ten years since General Practitioners in Northern Norway first integrated telemedicine, making it possible to send referrals and receive discharge summaries electronically.
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n4a
“People of all ages are using the internet, cell phones and other technologies to communicate with family and friends in new and exciting ways. In a matter of seconds you can send a message to your son, receive a photo from your granddaughter or email an invitation to a family gathering.
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El cuaderno de bitácora de Fran Sánchez
“Ya hemos hablado en varias ocasiones sobre el uso del correo electrónico para la comunicación en el ámbito sanitario, tanto entre profesionales como entre profesionales y ciudadanos.
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The Independent
“Transforming smartphones into medical marvels is a hot trend in scientific research. And now, a new smartphone-controlled device could help doctors diagnose cancer in a simple, in-office procedure – with results in a matter of minutes.
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Suzanne Hoholik, The Columbus Dispatch
“Unlike banks and utility companies, health-care providers have been slow to give up paper and phone calls for electronic health records and e-mail.
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Zickmund SL et al, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23(S1)
Background
Bioinformatics experts are developing interactive patient portals to help those living with diabetes and other chronic diseases to better manage their conditions. However, little is known about what influences patients’ desires to use this technology.
Objective
To discern the impact of the provider–patient relationship on interest in using a web-based patient portal.
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Brian T. Horowitz, eWeek
“Microsoft has announced it will integrate encrypted e-mail functionality into its HealthVault personal health platform.
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John Halamka, Life as a Healthcare CIO
“The proposed Stage 2 Meaningful Use Recommendations include numerous patient engagement features: patient communication preference, electronic self management tools, EHR interfaces to PHRs, patient reporting of care experiences online, and patient generated data incorporation into EHRs.
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Thomas McMennamin, EHR Bloggers
“The Direct Project is designed to revolutionize exchange of health information between providers. No longer will providers’ offices need to fax copies of patient charts between physicians’ offices. The Direct Project envisions a future where two providers can electronically and securely transfer patient data from one physician to another. It can be thought of as a HIPAA compliant email system.
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Josh Lowensohn, CNET News
“Microsoft is trying to tighten up security on medical information that is sent by e-mail, while at the same time making it easier to share.
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