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Re-activateText messaging can help you communicate with your health-care provider, but it's not always the best way to share medical information, according to an editorial in the March 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Our recent report How wired is your doctor? reached similar conclusions. And our survey of 660 physicians found that other forms of of electronic communication are becoming more and more common in doctor's offices.
Face time is still best for urgent and complex situations, when it's crucial that both you and your doctor fully understand each other, say the authors of the JAMA editorial, Leora Horowitz, M.D. and Allan Detsky, M.D. And texting may not be a great idea for information you want to keep private. But for routine matters such as appointments or prescription renewals, texting might be a reasonable option. And it can also be a good way for health-care providers to communicate with each other."It is inevitable that communication patterns among clinicians will begin to shift," wrote Horowitz and Detsky. "The challenge will be to accomplish this shift in the most effective, efficient, and responsible fashion. In the end, patients need to be absolutely confident that their physician knows everything of importance about them."
—Maggie Shader
See our tips on when and how to e-mail with your doctor. And tell us about your experiences with electronic health-information technology.
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