ArticleSurgical endoscopy2016
Rapid growth in surgeons' use of secure messaging in a patient portal.
Article in Surgical endoscopy, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 2 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
41 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Quantifying Patient Portal Use: Systematic Review of Utilization Metrics.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Health Care Professionals' Experiences of Patient-Professional Communication Over Patient Portals: Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- The Role of Measurement in Identifying High-Intensity Secure Message Senders Among Older Adults: Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- A scoping review of studies on secure messaging through patient portals: persistent challenges and potential solutions.npj health systems · 2026Article
- Portal message utilization in orthopedic spine surgery: patterns, predictors, and financial implications.North American Spine Society journal · 2026Article
- Electronic Health Record Burnout in Surgery and Strategies to Improve Burnout: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- Imaging-based Surgical Site Infection Detection Using Artificial Intelligence.Annals of surgery · 2025Article
- Patient Portal Use Among Admitted Surgical Patients Following the 21st Century Cures Act.JAMA surgery · 2025Article
- Measurement, drivers, and outcomes of patient-initiated secure messaging use and intensity: a scoping review.JAMIA open · 2025Review
- Patient-Health Care Professional Communication via a Secure Web-Based Portal in Severe Mental Health Conditions: Qualitative Analysis of Secure Messages.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Evaluating representativeness: recruitment for a virtual family-based intervention focused on the transition from pediatric to adult diabetes care†.Journal of pediatric psychology · 2025Article
- Automatic uncovering of patient primary concerns in portal messages using a fusion framework of pretrained language models.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Article
- Electronic Health Record Use and Perceptions among Urologic Surgeons.Applied clinical informatics · 2023Article
- Characterizing Patient-Clinician Communication in Secure Medical Messages: Retrospective Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- Analyzing Patient Secure Messages Using a Fast Health Care Interoperability Resources (FIHR)-Based Data Model: Development and Topic Modeling Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Descriptive examination of secure messaging in a longitudinal cohort of diabetes patients in the ECLIPPSE study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2021Article
- Physicians' electronic inbox work patterns and factors associated with high inbox work duration.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2021Article
- Communication With Patients Before an Operation: Their Preferences on Method of Communication.Cureus · 2020Article
- Automating the Classification of Complexity of Medical Decision-Making in Patient-Provider Messaging in a Patient Portal.The Journal of surgical research · 2020Article
- A Retrospective Analysis of Provider-to-Patient Secure Messages: How Much Are They Increasing, Who Is Doing the Work, and Is the Work Happening After Hours?JMIR medical informatics · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundUse of secure messaging through patient portals has risen substantially in recent years due to provider incentives and consumer demand. Secure messaging may increase patient satisfaction and improve outcomes, but also adds to physician workload. Most prior studies of secure messaging focused on primary care and medical specialties. We examined surgeons' use of secure messaging and the contribution of messaging to outpatient interactions in a broadly deployed patient portal.
methodsWe determined the number of clinic visits and secure messages for surgical providers in the first 3 years (2008-2010) after patient portal deployment at an academic medical center. We calculated the proportion of outpatient interaction conducted through messaging for each specialty. Logistic regression models compared the likelihood of message-based versus clinic outpatient interaction across surgical specialties.
resultsOver the study period, surgical providers delivered care in 648,200 clinic visits and received 83,912 messages, with more than 200% growth in monthly message volume. Surgical specialties receiving the most messages were orthopedics/podiatry (25.1%), otolaryngology (20.1%), urology (10.8%), and general surgery (9.6%); vascular surgery (0.8%) and pediatric general surgery (0.2%) received the fewest. The proportion of outpatient interactions conducted through secure messaging increased significantly from 5.4% in 2008 to 15.3% in 2010 (p < 0.001) with all specialties experiencing growth. Heart/lung transplantation (74.9%), liver/kidney/pancreas transplantation (69.5%), and general surgery (48.7%) had the highest proportion of message-based outpatient interaction by the end of the study.
conclusionsThis study demonstrates rapid adoption of online secure messaging across surgical specialties with significant growth in its use for outpatient interaction. Some specialties, particularly those with long-term follow-up, interacted with patients more through secure messaging than in person. As surgeons devote more time to secure messaging, additional research will be needed to understand the care delivered through online interactions and to develop models for reimbursement.
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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.