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Patient Use of Email, Facebook, and Physician Websites to Communicate with Physicians: A National Online Survey of Retail Pharmacy Users

Overview of attention for article published in Journal of General Internal Medicine, June 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
8 news outlets
blogs
4 blogs
twitter
89 X users
facebook
5 Facebook pages

Citations

dimensions_citation
54 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
169 Mendeley
Title
Patient Use of Email, Facebook, and Physician Websites to Communicate with Physicians: A National Online Survey of Retail Pharmacy Users
Published in
Journal of General Internal Medicine, June 2015
DOI 10.1007/s11606-015-3374-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Joy L. Lee, Niteesh K. Choudhry, Albert W. Wu, Olga S. Matlin, Troyen A. Brennan, William H. Shrank

Abstract

Patient-physician communication often occurs outside the clinic setting; many institutions discourage electronic communication outside of established electronic health record systems. Little empirical data are available on patient interest in electronic communication and Web-based health tools that are technically feasible but not widely available. To explore patient behavior and interest in using the Internet to contact physicians. National cross-sectional online survey. A sample of 4,510 CVS customers with at least one chronic condition in the household was used to target patients with chronic conditions and their caregivers. Subjects were identified from a national panel of over 100,000 retail pharmacy customers. Of those sampled, 2,252 responded (50.0 % response rate). Survey measures included demographic and health information, patient use of email and Facebook to contact physicians, and patient interest in and use of Web-based tools for health. A total of 37 % of patients reported contacting their physicians via email within the last six months, and 18 % via Facebook. Older age was negatively associated with contacting physicians using email (OR 0.57 [95 % CI 0.41-0.78]) or Facebook (OR 0.28 [0.17-0.45]). Non-white race (OR 1.61 [1.18-2.18] and OR 1.82 [1.24-2.67]) and caregiver status (OR 1.58 [1.27-1.96] and OR 1.71 [1.31- 2.23]) were positively associated with using email and Facebook, respectively. Patients were interested in using Web-based tools to fill prescriptions, track their own health, and access health information (37-57 %), but few were currently doing so (4-8 %). In this population of retail pharmacy users, there is strong interest among patients in the use of email and Facebook to communicate with their physicians. The findings highlight the gap between patient interest for online communication and what physicians may currently provide. Improving and accelerating the adoption of secure Web messaging systems is a possible solution that addresses both institutional concerns and patient demand.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 89 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 169 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 3 2%
United Kingdom 2 1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Unknown 161 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 33 20%
Researcher 25 15%
Student > Ph. D. Student 19 11%
Other 10 6%
Student > Doctoral Student 10 6%
Other 25 15%
Unknown 47 28%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 33 20%
Nursing and Health Professions 23 14%
Social Sciences 15 9%
Psychology 11 7%
Business, Management and Accounting 10 6%
Other 19 11%
Unknown 58 34%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 145. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 November 2019.
All research outputs
#264,763
of 24,208,207 outputs
Outputs from Journal of General Internal Medicine
#227
of 7,870 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,775
of 268,275 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of General Internal Medicine
#5
of 131 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,208,207 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,870 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 22.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 268,275 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 131 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.