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Electronic Patient–Physician Communication
- Kenneth D. Mandl, MD, MPH; and
- Isaac S. Kohane, MD, PhD
- Children's Hospital, Boston; Boston, MA 02115 (Mandl) Children's Hospital, Boston; Boston, MA 02115 (Kohane)
The Editors welcome submissions for possible publication in the Letters section. Authors of letters should:
•Include no more than 300 words of text, three authors, and five references
•Type with double-spacing
•Send three copies of the letter, an authors' form signed by all authors, and a cover letter describing any conflicts of interest related to the contents of the letter.
Letters commenting on an Annals article will be considered if they are received within 6 weeks of the time the article was published. Only some of the letters received can be published. Published letters are edited and may be shortened; tables and figures are included only selectively. Authors will be notified that the letter has been received. If the letter is selected for publication, the author will be notified about 3 weeks before the publication date. Unpublished letters cannot be returned.
Annals welcomes electronically submitted letters.
IN RESPONSE:
We strongly agree with Dr. Wong that e-mail correspondence between patients and physicians must be both authenticated and archived in the patient's record. Indeed, some proprietary systems may fall short by leaving messages vulnerable to subsequent alteration. In our article, we suggested public key cryptography as one candidate technology for confirming the identity of the senders while protecting the content of the messages against unauthorized access. Following guidelines such as those set out by the American Medical Informatics Association (1) will help to avoid some of the potential pitfalls in electronic patient–physician communication.
Kenneth D. Mandl, MD, MPH
Children's Hospital, Boston; Boston, MA 02115
The Editors welcome submissions for possible publication in the Letters section. Authors of letters should:
•Include no more than 300 words of text, three authors, and five references
•Type with double-spacing
•Send three copies of the letter, an authors' form signed by all authors, and a cover letter describing any conflicts of interest related to the contents of the letter.
Letters commenting on an Annals article will be considered if they are received within 6 weeks of the time the article was published. Only some of the letters received can be published. Published letters are edited and may be shortened; tables and figures are included only selectively. Authors will be notified that the letter has been received. If the letter is selected for publication, the author will be notified about 3 weeks before the publication date. Unpublished letters cannot be returned.
Annals welcomes electronically submitted letters.
- Copyright ©2004 by the American College of Physicians
