Survey: Most patients don’t contact doctors via e-mail

Scripps Howard

Results from a late-2008 survey released last week by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project and the California Health Care Foundation show that three out of four American adults go online and that 83 percent of them use the Internet to access health information.

But e-patients are still finicky, the responses of more than 2,250 adults 18 or older suggest.

Eighty-six percent said they still reach out to those professionals to deal with health or medical issues. While a fraction used e-mail or other messaging to make contact, most still use the phone or see the doctor in person.

One major reason: Most doctors aren’t paid for dealing with patients by e-mail, although some HMOs are starting to compensate for such services. A bigger reason, though, is that doctors aren’t comfortable with e-mail or text messaging and are afraid they’ll miss something or miscommunicate.