Additionally, survey respondents indicated significant desire to use these online communication tools for filling prescriptions: 46 percent of patients reported being interested in doing so via email while an additional 7 percent claimed that they were already doing so.
The new study did not include the opinions of health care providers.
The American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards advises that physicians strictly limit how they communicate with patients via email, keep professional and personal online personas separate and not "friend" or contact patients through sites like Facebook and Twitter.
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"Patient Use of Email, Facebook, and Physicians' Websites to Communicate with Physicians: A National Online Survey of Retail Pharmacy Users" was written by Joy Lee, Niteesh K. Choudhry, Albert W. Wu, Olga S. Matlin, Troyen A. Brennan, and William H. Shrank. Collaborators are affiliated with the Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, CVS Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The research was supported by an unrestricted research grant from CVS Health to Brigham and Women's Hospital.
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