Trial reportJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
A content analysis of e-mail communication between patients and their providers: patients get the message.
Trial report in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Technological Growth in eHealth Services.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2015Pooled it
- Patients' online access to their electronic health records and linked online services: a systematic interpretative review.BMJ open · 2014Pooled it
- Email for clinical communication between patients/caregivers and healthcare professionals.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- E-mail in patient-provider communication: a systematic review.Patient education and counseling · 2010Pooled it
- Impact of Patient-Clinical Team Secure Messaging on Communication Patterns and Patient Experience: Randomized Encouragement Design Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Trial
- Patients' willingness to pay for electronic communication with their general practitioner.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2007Trial
- Classification of patient- and clinician-generated secure messages using a theory-based taxonomy.Health science reports · 2021Article
- Relationship between genetic knowledge and familial communication of CRC risk and intent to communicate CRCP genetic information: insights from FamilyTalk eMERGE III.Translational behavioral medicine · 2021Article
- Not just an information-delivery tool. An ethnographic study exploring Danish GPs' perspectives on and experiences with the relational potential of email consultation.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2020Article
- Email Consultations Between Patients and Doctors in Primary Care: Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
- Article
- Factors Influencing Acceptance of Personal Health Record Apps for Workplace Health Promotion: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2020Article
- Disparities in Secure Messaging Uptake Between Patients and Physicians: Longitudinal Analysis of Two National Cross-Sectional Surveys.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
- National Trends in Primary Care Visit Use and Practice Capabilities, 2008-2015.Annals of family medicine · 2019Article
- Examining the Complexity of Patient-Outpatient Care Team Secure Message Communication: Qualitative Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- Patient Centeredness in Electronic Communication: Evaluation of Patient-to-Health Care Team Secure Messaging.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- An analysis of patient-provider secure messaging at two Veterans Health Administration medical centers: message content and resolution through secure messaging.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2017Article
- A comparison of rule-based and machine learning approaches for classifying patient portal messages.International journal of medical informatics · 2017Article
- The impact of secure messaging on workflow in primary care: Results of a multiple-case, multiple-method study.International journal of medical informatics · 2017Article
- Email Between Patient and Provider: Assessing the Attitudes and Perspectives of 624 Primary Health Care Patients.JMIR medical informatics · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveE-mail use in the clinical setting has been slow to diffuse for several reasons, including providers' concerns about patients' inappropriate and inefficient use of the technology. This study examined the content of a random sample of patient-physician e-mail messages to determine the validity of those concerns.
designA qualitative analysis of patient-physician e-mail messages was performed. MEASUREMENTS: A total of 3,007 patient-physician e-mail messages were collected over 11 months as part of a randomized, controlled trial of a triage-based e-mail system in two primary care centers (including 98 physicians); 10% of messages were randomly selected for review. Messages were coded across such domains as message type, number of requests per e-mail, inclusion of sensitive content, necessity of a physician response, and message tone.
resultsThe majority (82.8%) of messages addressed a single issue. The most common message types included information updates to the physicians (41.4%), prescription renewals (24.2%), health questions (13.2%), questions about test results (10.9%), referrals (8.8%), "other" (including thank yous, apologies) (8.8%), appointments (5.4%), requests for non-health-related information (4.8%), and billing questions (0.3%). Overall, messages were concise, formal, and medically relevant. Very few (5.1%) included sensitive content, and none included urgent messages. Less than half (43.2%) required a physician response.
conclusionA triage-based e-mail system promoted e-mail exchanges appropriate for primary care. Most patients adhered to guidelines aimed at focusing content, limiting the number of requests per message, and avoiding urgent requests or highly sensitive content. Thus, physicians' concerns about the content of patients' e-mails may be unwarranted.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.