An e-visit primer

The AMA has developed a brochure to give guidance to member physicians interested in offering electronic consults.

Editorial. Nov. 13, 2006.

Consumer demand for convenient service has brought electronic transactions into almost every aspect of daily living. Banking can be handled online. Bills can be paid with the click of a mouse. And shopping via computer-- whether for groceries, clothes, books or just about any other product available in stores -- is now routine for millions of Americans.

Now many consumers are looking for the same convenience when it comes to communicating with their physicians. For doctors who want to delve into electronic communication or who already have done so but would like some advice, the American Medical Association has published a new brochure offering guidance.

Patient demand is out there. A September Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll found that 74% of respondents would like to use e-mail to communicate directly with their physicians. About 67% would like to get diagnostic test results via e-mail, according to the online survey of 2,600 American adults.

Physicians who invest in information technology could give themselves a competitive advantage, the poll found. Sixty-two percent of respondents said the use of e-mail would influence their choice of doctor.

But studies show that physician practices are not keeping up with consumers' desires. For example, just 8% of respondents to the Harris poll said they either communicate directly with their doctors via e-mail or could but don't do so.

Meanwhile, 24% of respondents to a 2004-05 telephone survey of 6,600 physicians by the Center for Studying Health System Change reported that they use e-mail or a secure online tool to communicate clinical issues with patients.