Study: Emails between patients, physicians tripled over 10 years

Email communications between physicians and patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston nearly tripled over a 10-year period, according to a study published in Health Affairs, Health Data Management reports. For the study, researchers examined email communications at Beth Israel. In 2000, the hospital created a Web portal through which patients could view parts of their medical records and communicate via email with their physicians. The researchers looked at email traffic between 2000 and 2010. The researchers found that email communications nearly tripled because more patients were registering to use the online portal. Specifically, about 50,000 patients -- or 23% of BIDMC's patient base -- enrolled in the portal during the 10-year study period.