Email between patients and clinicians
A colleague looking into workflow tools asked today about whether the UpDox workspace message center supported unique patient logins for web messaging our outbound encryption, etc. The question is a broader one and reflects confusion about privacy, security, etc
There are many tools that can launch a message center to send an embedded message center and you have the option to encrypt an outbound message in such a way that one has to have a special downloaded reader (an acrobat model) to view. But every clinician I have known has had their patients sign or opt a HIPAA waiver and has their lab and other messages just emailed to them directly,. Secure web encrypted web messaging, special encrypted packeted email all have solutions–medem, relayhealth, zix, biometric enabled, etc–and most consumers simply do not care. They want their information sent to the same place they work all day long in their own email and where they would get their banking password emailed to them as well! (I am not being facetious, this is just the reality)
Nevertheless, if one used something like relayhealth, for example,, one could just attach the resulting lab report, with comments, or the CCR with comments, etc by opening relayhealth inside the web browser, etc.
This is a very interesting and important topic. We enabled all clinicians, for example to offer a free encrypted medical email account to their patients with a special domain address so it was encrypted out and all going thru one network., Highly practical. And guess what?–the patients would still have it forwarded unencrypted of course to their personal gmail, yahoo or other email, and it was just an extra step. So at the end of the day most clinicians just email the patient directly, out of the patients request and more practical workflow. That is not a system issue, it is a practical and individual preference one.
There is alot of discussion about messaging with patients in EMR users forums, the Ideal Micropractice, specialty AAFP and other primary care forums, and in the medical and general press, as you know. Many clinicians are available who would be happy to share their thoughts as well
AJB
