Emails, calls to the doctor cut down on office visits

Patients who can email with their doctors or talk to them on the phone end up making significantly fewer office appointments, according to statistics by California-based HMO Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser found that office visits per member dropped by about a quarter between 2004 and 2007 in Hawaii. Secure email messaging began in 2005, and in 2007 members sent more than 51,000 messages. Scheduled telephone visits jumped during that period as well.