I was surprised to read in the editorial ‘Use of e-mail for consulting with patients in general practice’1 that the author dismissed the issue of security of clinical information, stating that ‘other industries routinely conduct transactions of a confidential nature via email, for example banking and insurance’. This is incorrect. Institutions such as banks do not use e-mail for confidential transactions because it is not secure. Their use of e-mail is limited to defined conditions and for strictly limited purposes. Secure email is possible (for example, using public key infrastructure [PKI] or other forms of encryption) but this has had only limited use.
Although the UK Department of Health advocates the use of electronic communication between clinician and patient, there are issues of privacy, confidentiality, security, and data storage to be resolved in addition to the need, as outlined in the editorial, for health professionals to adapt to the use of this form of clinical communication.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2013
