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Senior Citizen and Internet
More Senior Citizens May Turn to Email as Physicians
Provide Access, Study Suggests
People who use e-mail would like to have
access to their physicians
 Feb. 18, 2008 - There is something on the horizon
that may budge more senior citizens to join the world of email. As older
people know, the link with your physician becomes a much more critical
issue with age and many seniors work at improving this communication.
Now, new research says one way that seems to work is email access to
physicians.
This study of younger people indicates that
providing patients with email access to their surgeon improves
communications but does not affect patient satisfaction, according to a
report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the
JAMA/Archives journals.
"The fundamental basis of the physician-patient
relationship has always been face-to-face communication. However,
advances in communications technology have, from time to time,
challenged that assumption," according to background information in the
article.
Although e-mail has been used worldwide to
transform communication in various industries such as banking and
retail, little has been published regarding its use in health care
"other than dire warnings about the potential minefield of legal
disasters and litigation that might accompany its use."
Peter Stalberg, M.D., Ph.D., of the Royal North
Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia, and colleagues studied 100 patients
prior to undergoing thyroid or parathyroid surgery.
Of those, 50 (average age 45.1) were
assigned to receive an information sheet including the surgeons e-mail
address and a statement informing them that the surgeons preferred
method of communication was e-mail.
Another 50 patients (average age 48.2)
received an information sheet that did not include an e-mail address or
statement about the surgeons preferred mode of communication.
The surgeons e-mail address was available to both
groups on the appointment card and a website. Researchers assessed
patient communication with the surgeon outside of consultation as well
as information provided on patient satisfaction questionnaires.
In total, 26 of 100 patients (26 percent) initiated
additional communication with the surgeon around the time of operation,
19 of 50 (38 percent) in the group provided with e-mail information and
7 of 50 (14 percent) in the group not given e-mail information on the
contact sheet.
"Of those who initiated communication, 22 of 26 (84
percent) did so by e-mail; three (12 percent), by fax and one (4
percent), by telephone," the authors write.
For patients using email, 18 of 22 (81 percent)
were in the group provided with e-mail information, while four of the 22
(18 percent) were in the group that did not receive e-mail information
on their contact sheet.
Most e-mails sent addressed one issue, while only a
few addressed multiple issues, with the most issues being four in one
e-mail.
Some of the most popular issues raised by email
were general information (21 e-mails), postoperative recovery (eight
e-mails), results (five e-mails) and reassurance (four e-mails). There
were no differences in patient satisfaction with communication between
the two groups.
"People who use e-mail certainly would like to have
e-mail access to their physicians," the authors conclude.
"Despite the many concerns, we believe that this
study shows that the provision to patients of readily available e-mail
access to their surgeon provides a very effective means of improving
communication prior to patients undergoing elective surgery."
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