E-mail consults work best with careful questioning
Physicians can improve e-mail consults by carefully constructing the questions they want answered, according to a study at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Researchers analyzed nearly 700 e-mail queries from and responses to 60 primary care physicians in eastern Iowa to specialty physicians and other health care professionals.
The study found a link between how primary care doctors structured their questions in the e-mails and whether the specialist consultants answered the questions with a formal consultation, according to George Bergus, MD, associate professor of family medicine at the University of Iowa and the study’s lead investigator.
The researchers found that well-structured questions were those that clearly identified the treatment the primary doctor was proposing to use and the desired outcomes they hoped their patient would experience, Bergus says.
"When both components were present, primary care doctors had successful outcomes from their curbside consultations 90% of the time. However, when neither component was include in the e-mailed question, only 70% of consultations were successful," Bergus says. A successful outcome occurred when the specialist consultants answered the question without requesting a formal consultation.
The University of Iowa offers a physician tutorial on formulating clinical questions at: http:// fpinfo.medicine.uiowa.edu/tutorial/intro_questions.htm.
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