Did You Get My Message? Trends and Predictors of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patient-to-Provider Electronic Messaging.

Abstract

Use of electronic messaging systems represents a relatively new but rapidly growing part of a medical provider’s everyday practice. Patients with IBD often experience a relapsing and remitting disease course that requires contact with their providers between clinic visits, including electronic messaging. Increased frequency of contact via telephone in an IBD population has been associated with greater disease activity, psychiatric comorbidity, and opioid use.1 Patterns of electronic messaging within the electronic health record (EHR) have not been examined in an IBD population but have been predicted by unique factors including young age and socioeconomic status in other populations.2 We aimed to assess the patterns and predictors of patient-to-provider electronic messaging in a medically homed IBD population at a tertiary academic center. We hypothesized that messaging rates would increase over time and that the majority of messages would be sent by a small group of patients with more severe...