"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - HL Mencken
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"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius
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"The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease" - Sir William Osler
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" The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power." - Bob Sutton
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them - well, I have others." - Groucho Marx
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them" - Friedrich Nietzsche
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"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." - Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
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"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it." - Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a
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"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing." - Thomas Sowell
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"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - HL Mencken
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"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow
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"A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves." - Herbie Hancock
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"There are no facts, only interpretations." - Nietzsche
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"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." - Anatole France
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"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Workouts by month - Goal 200 from 11/1/09 through 10/31/10
The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty: "There once was a man named O'Bama ..." http://ow.ly/1nUH3 - HCR limericks and a cold one for BobMarch 18, 2010 5:24
http://ow.ly/1mYi7 - ABIM MOC program - two differing viewpoints - you can guess my voteMarch 16, 2010 5:06
RT @yejnes: My thoughts on the annual exam, etc., final letter ACP Internist, March 2010 http://bit.ly/9FNcXn wel-stated & importantMarch 15, 2010 12:47
A note to the professors, from the "real" world, on the use of ICDs in a fee for service community... http://ow.ly/1jaPy - great postMarch 13, 2010 2:19
RT @paulinechen: New "Doctor and Patient"; Learning to Keep Patients Safe in a Culture of Fear http://nyti.ms/bYA14V - blog post comingMarch 12, 2010 1:35
RT @tom_peters: @kevinmd Spoken like an MD. - true primary care is very complex - it is not simple care -March 11, 2010 12:43
RT @efalchuk: Seriously, what is Nancy Pelosi Talking About? http://bit.ly/9sHSc2 #healthreform #hcr #healthcare think Dazed and ConfusedMarch 10, 2010 7:53
Obama Says Health Overhaul Should Trump Politics - http://nyti.ms/bwKRyo - and he is correctMarch 8, 2010 7:28
In a 2002 survey by Harris Interactive, 90% of adults with Internet access indicated they want to communicate with their physicians via e-mail. But a survey last year by Manhattan Research, a marketing information and services firm, found that less than 20% of physicians communicate via e-mail.
The top reason doctors give for withholding their e-mail address is the fear that it will lead to “too much access” and they will be barraged with messages about “trivial matters,” according to a Journal of Family Practice article in 2001.
In other words, patients can’t be trusted not to abuse our doctors’ time. But if doctors finally moved into the high-tech age, they’d soon discover that many of their concerns about e-mail are misplaced.
The commentary does a nice job of painting a complete picture of the field.
I would like to hear the legal industry on liability issues. Also we tried this where I practice with the opposite result. We were constantly being asked to refill meds without seeing the patient, diagnose by e-mail, hold thier hand about meds, medical problems, or what they had read on the internet. Patients used it to ty and bypass the appointment system. Just did’t work out in our system.
My doctor was always good about email but the lawyers told her to cut it out…liability and all that garbage. Now I have to leave a message with the gatekeeper, stay off the computer (we have dial-up) in case she calls.
Several potential problems with e-mail access by patients:
1. This is an additional service for which the system will not reimburse for our time and expertise.
2. Will there be liability issues regarding delayed responses to e-mails?
3. How will we differentiate legitimate e-mails from spam? I currently delete e-mails without opening them if I don’t recognize the sender. If I give patients my e-mail address, I’m sure I will unintentionally delete many legitimate messages.
[...] rmation and services firm, found that less than 20% of physicians communicate via e-mail.” Doctor Bob is for allowing patients email access, as am [...]
E-mail seems preferable to phone calls in that the doctor’s normal work flow is not interupted and the patient has a written record of the exchange. Seems like a win-win situation to me. You do answer patient calls, don’t you?
Well, we need to work on how we reimburse doctors then, because people are busy. The CEO of Partners Health really likes the idea, although he seems to be a hyper-driven person who answers his e-mail at 11 PM.
I’ve given a number of my patients access to my work e-mail account. Thus far it’s worked pretty well and I haven’t had any problems with abuse. I do need to find a better way of documenting our exchanges than I do (other than just saving the messages), but so far so good. Of course, I work for the Man, so reimbursement is not an issue.
8 Responses to In favor of patient email access
Hurly
June 21st, 2005 at 1:07 pm
I would like to hear the legal industry on liability issues. Also we tried this where I practice with the opposite result. We were constantly being asked to refill meds without seeing the patient, diagnose by e-mail, hold thier hand about meds, medical problems, or what they had read on the internet. Patients used it to ty and bypass the appointment system. Just did’t work out in our system.
dymphna
June 21st, 2005 at 2:38 pm
My doctor was always good about email but the lawyers told her to cut it out…liability and all that garbage. Now I have to leave a message with the gatekeeper, stay off the computer (we have dial-up) in case she calls.
What a royal pain. I loathe lawyers.
Lawrence Markman, M.D.
June 21st, 2005 at 3:05 pm
Several potential problems with e-mail access by patients:
1. This is an additional service for which the system will not reimburse for our time and expertise.
2. Will there be liability issues regarding delayed responses to e-mails?
3. How will we differentiate legitimate e-mails from spam? I currently delete e-mails without opening them if I don’t recognize the sender. If I give patients my e-mail address, I’m sure I will unintentionally delete many legitimate messages.
Subaqua Sternal Rubs » Blog Archive » Prescription for doctors: E-mail
June 21st, 2005 at 3:50 pm
[...] rmation and services firm, found that less than 20% of physicians communicate via e-mail.” Doctor Bob is for allowing patients email access, as am [...]
Bernie Simon
June 21st, 2005 at 7:27 pm
E-mail seems preferable to phone calls in that the doctor’s normal work flow is not interupted and the patient has a written record of the exchange. Seems like a win-win situation to me. You do answer patient calls, don’t you?
Off topic article of the day:
Medical societies worry about drug company influence.
Abby
June 22nd, 2005 at 3:27 pm
Well, we need to work on how we reimburse doctors then, because people are busy. The CEO of Partners Health really likes the idea, although he seems to be a hyper-driven person who answers his e-mail at 11 PM.
Thomas Lee on Chris Lydon’s Open Source (http://www.radioopensource.org)
http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=053105&collection=opensource_audio
The show was titled “The Doctor Will Google you Now”
Abby
June 22nd, 2005 at 3:28 pm
Same show info available here.
http://www.radioopensource.org/index.php?s=doctor+google
Ryan Maves
June 25th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
I’ve given a number of my patients access to my work e-mail account. Thus far it’s worked pretty well and I haven’t had any problems with abuse. I do need to find a better way of documenting our exchanges than I do (other than just saving the messages), but so far so good. Of course, I work for the Man, so reimbursement is not an issue.