Today there are many ways to communicate with your patients. Although email and texting
are faster and easier, they still need to guarantee patient privacy and ensure that patients will
understand your messages without face-to-face interaction.
Personal Heath Records, or PHRs, are becoming more prevalent to help physicians answer patient demands for transparency and digital delivery systems. PHR is a fully accessible, interactive, lifelong layperson tool for managing health information, fostering health maintenance and facilitating chronic disease management. Though less than 10 percent of physicians use PHRs right now, that number is expected to grow.
PHR, email taking patient-provider conversations online
The fact that new electronic channels such as PHRs have not yet been widely adopted may mean that many physicians still have concerns about HIPAA compliance. Email, on the other hand, has been adopted by more than 20 percent of physicians. Another 6 percent are now using smart phone texts to communicate with patients.
Of course, the most prevalent methods of communicating with patients are still face-to-face and phone. But as more and more patients adopt online methods such as social media, physician review sites and email, it is likely to increase all kinds of online conversations.