It's so frustrating! I hate that doctors tend not to use email the way rest of us do. This article at Yahoo! makes their side of it a little clearer, but not much. One argument is that physicians are not reimbursed for email interactions with patients. But they're not paid for phone calls, either. One doctors sums it up:
"Dr. Tom Delbanco, a primary care doctor at Beth Israel who e-mails patients, believes it is just a matter of time before the technology becomes a routine part of patient care.
Medicine is very conservative. It changes slowly," he said."
It might have been more accurate to say it changes at glacial speed. Anyway, it's time to change. And at least one doctor, Daniel Z. Sands, MD, is trying. He's posted tons of material dedicated to patient-centered electronic communication. You should send it to your doctor.
