Clinical encounters in cyberspace

We recently redesigned our hospital discharge summary and added my Internet email address. The general practitioners in our area have my telephone and fax numbers and use these frequently to contact me about our patients, and I hoped that those connected would make use of this additional facility to get in touch with me. Patients are given copies of their summaries to take home.

A few weeks ago I logged on to retrieve my mail and was surprised to find a message from a patient discharged only a week before. He had obtained my email address from his copy of the discharge summary and welcomed the chance to tell me that he was pleased with …