texting

Now here’s an area that if  only modestly improved could probably save everyone a lot of time and money and improve medical outcomes.

A Nielsen survey says that most patients can’t use e-mail, texting and other electronic tools to share, back and forth, medical information with their physicians because many providers don’t offer such access.

The survey polled more than 5,000 Americans ages 18-65 on their technology attitudes and use to manage their medical care. Only 21 percent had  access to online physician-appointment-scheduling;  just 15 percent used email to communicate with their providers, and only 9 percent  got text reminders

“All the functionality that we live our lives on isn’t available in health care. You use your phone every day to send a text message or e-mail; you can’t do that to over 90 percent of physicians. You take a picture, and you want to send it someone; you can’t do that [with doctors’ offices] today,” Robert Pearl, chairman of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices, told The Washington Post.