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Email communication between patients and healthcare professionals

Although email is now a very commonly-used method of communication, its use in health care is not yet routine. Email has been used for communication of clinical information between patients and healthcare professionals, but the effects of using email in this way are not known. In a recent review published by the Cochrane Collaboration, Helen Atherton and colleagues assessed the use of email for two-way clinical communication between patients and healthcare professionals. Atherton and colleagues concluded that the evidence was limited it was not possible to adequately assess the effect of email for clinical communication between patients professionals. They advised that future research should take into account the changing nature of technology when designing and conducting future studies and barriers to trial development and implementation should also be tackled. Potential outcomes of interest for future research include clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and use of health services.

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