Abstract
Background and Program: Secure email messaging is used to provide timely communication between healthcare providers and patients with medical information and education. There have been increasing rates of overweight and obesity among military healthcare patients. To address this issue, we utilized a secure email messaging system that is primarily used for medication refills. This commentary demonstrates the extent to which the message was viewed and how much the message was liked. Preliminary Results: Of the 16,020 individuals emailed, 7,011 participants (43.8%) opened the email, and 1,023 patients (14.6% of those who opened it) completed the survey. Satisfaction rate for the health promotion message was 77.2%. Participants reported an intent to eat more fruit and vegetables (49.6%), decrease portion sizes (38.8%), and increase physical activity (51.1%), while 33.6% reported having no intent to change. Conclusion: The majority were satisfied with the health promotion message. This email method enables a single provider to have increased contact with patients. It is unknown if this message reached higher risk or harder to reach participants, a patient subset that could benefit most from this type of communication. This study is unique in that to our knowledge it is the first one to use secure email messaging in the military healthcare system for health promotion.
Highlights
The availability and increased use of electronic health communications has greatly improved health care access among consumers and patients by providing secure online access to records, increasing direct messaging to healthcare providers and providing an opportunity to empower patients with accredited and high-quality health information. (Osterman, 2009, Thimbleby, 2013)
The use of secure email messaging helps strengthen health communication and adheres to Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements. This has been incorporated into the Veterans Health Affairs (VHA) for medication refills, health care reminders, and communication with the clinicians averaging 2.2 personal messages per week overall, and 4.23 messages per week among those clinicians who have been using the system for more than one year (Byrne, et al, 2009)
Lessons Learned This study demonstrated that the use of the secure email messaging on nutrition and exercise messaging could be an effective method for health promotion
Summary
The availability and increased use of electronic health communications (email and social media) has greatly improved health care access among consumers and patients by providing secure online access to records, increasing direct messaging to healthcare providers and providing an opportunity to empower patients with accredited and high-quality health information. (Osterman, 2009, Thimbleby, 2013). Program Change Health (previously Relay Health) is a secure email service that military health care system participants and their allied health providers can utilize to send and receive messages about healthcare questions, labs and order medications.
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