This new service allows patients to contact their doctors through an Internet messaging service that will send faxes to doctors without computers. Legal liability Many physicians worry that email is somehow going to increase their liability. As yet, there is no case law in this area. Used wisely and well, clinical email messages will rather, I believe, provide an excellent defense in malpractice litigation, since they provide a perfect record of patient-provider communication. It is important that both parties using email understand its risks and benefits and that this understanding is documented in the patient record.
Email is a thin medium.
It is not good for conveying humor, shades of meaning, or emotion. Even if your email program allows you to emphasize or change fonts, you should always assume that your patients can only read plain text. It is therefore important that you communicate clearly in your messages. A malicious individual could screen all messages coming in and out of your office. With an estimated 200 billion email messages being sent in 2001, it is unlikely that anyone will be searching for the juicy tidbit a patient is sending to you.