Study: Only 6.7% of docs routinely e-mail patients

WASHINGTON – Despite many patients’ wish to be able to exchange e-mail with their doctors, only 6.7 percent of all office-based physicians routinely sent e-mail to their patients about clinical issues as of 2008, the latest data available, a new study shows.
The study, produced by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found that only 34.5 percent of doctors had the technology to communicate with patients by e-mail about clinical issues.
The survey did not specifically ask about the type of technology, though federal and state laws set strict privacy and security standards, so a doctor might have e-mail but not a secure system that he or she could use for confidential communications.
Even among doctors who had the technology available, however, only 19.5 percent routinely e-mailed patients, while twice as many routinely exchanged e-mail with other providers.
Other studies focused on patients have found substantial interest in electronic communications with doctors. One survey last year, sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation and conducted at the end of 2009, found that between 50 percent and 70 percent of adults who did not use e-mail to communicate with their doctors or nurses were interested in doing so. &#8226