Someone Please Create Free, HIPAA-Compliant Patient-Physician Email
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Joshua Schwimmer, MD, FACP, FASN
Free, encrypted, HIPAA-complaint patient-physician email. Simple. Easy-to-use. Ad-supported. Perhaps by Google ads, like Gmail.But I'm getting ahead of myself. Think about it. Most physicians actually want to email their doctors. And many doctors would email their patients if there was a free, encrypted, private, easy-to-use system available. But most physician-patient email systems are expensive or are cumbersome to use. (For more background, see this three part series on patient-physician email on Tech Medicine.)
So here's my proposal:
Dear Google (or another company with resources and ambition),Photo Credit: Flickr
Please create an email system where all communication between physicians and patients is encrypted to comply with the HIPAA privacy law.
Make it free. Advertise it to doctors. Emphasize the HIPAA-compliant part. Emphasize the free part.
Monetize it with Google adwords or some other system. In fact -- if this is Google I'm speaking to -- just build it on Gmail. Countless Gmail users are already fine with seeing contextualized ads right next to their email. I don't think doctors and patients would mind. And if they do, well, those people won't use it. Plenty of other people will.
I understand there are technical limitations. But people have designed HIPAA-compliant patient-physician email systems before. I'm just asking you to do it better. And for free.
It would be huge. Not only in terms of potential advertising revenue, but it would provide a real service to patients who would love to email their doctors. And it might strengthen the physician-patient relationship like few things could.
Thanks for listening.
5 Comments:
At Sun Dec 23, 08:03:00 AM 2007,
Anonymous said…
Frankly, I wouldn't mind if my physician and I could simply use *ordinary* e-mail to communicate: fax is so ancient and awkward with a high-speed connection. I think this concern for privacy has gotten totally out of hand. I would sign a release, absolving my physican of any liability regarding his/her sending me data by e-mail. Naturally, any 3rd party would have to go through the usual hoops and hurdles before obtaining ANY information about me, e.g. insurance companies, ANY governmental agencies etc..
At Sun Dec 23, 02:04:00 PM 2007,
Anonymous said…
Great idea! I am a physician's wife and have some thoughts on this idea. As a patient, I sometimes forget to ask the doctor questions until after the visit. Email would help both the patient and the doctor if there was security in the privacy issue.
At Fri Jan 11, 09:52:00 PM 2008,
Tomd said…
Great news! It already exists, go to www.imedicor.com .iMedicor is a portal that provides users with free HIPAA compliant email and continuing medical education. The system was primarily created for communication between physicians, but works great for patient/ physician communication as well and it gives the physician control of the relationship. The basic email is free, but you can have it integrate with any EMR system for a low monthly cost. Check it out.
At Fri Jul 11, 05:42:00 AM 2008,
Dr Brown said…
Great idea! However, in addition to the above hisecure.net offers free encrypted email (up to 4096 bits) for physicians that surpass HIPAA requirements. It is webmail so it can be accessed from anywhere and all email communications are conducted over a secure connection (HTTPS).
At Mon Jul 28, 11:07:00 AM 2008,
Anonymous said…
1. Any patient is already able to sign waiver in person allowing communication via regular email. But that first requires them coming into the facility to sign the waiver.
2. Most secure email services require the patient and doctor to both sign up with the website and use the websites interface for communication. It would be better if the industry could settle on an encryption method that is done at the client side before sending the message. (ie, directly in Outlook or Thunberbird, or gmail...)
3. Cost is a huge factor. Doctors are busy spending their money on support staff, malpractice insurance, continuing education, equipment, etc. Don't make them pay for a tool that keeps the patient out of the facility (and there by removing that payment from the patient or insurance carrier).
4. Google Apps looks great. But if they have breach of security, the physician is the face that the patient will be screaming at, and you can bet that the OIG will come knocking at the physician's door.
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