Email security in clinical practice: ensuring patient confidentiality

Electronic mail (email) enjoys wide acceptance among the general public1,2 but has more limited acceptance among physicians.3 A 2005 survey found that 46% of Canadian physicians used email to communicate with colleagues for clinical purposes.4 Although email can be extremely useful, physicians need to appreciate the potential hazards of using email in clinical practice.5 The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) has noted that “e-mailing or faxing unencrypted patient health information is really no more secure than sending that information on a postcard,”6 and that “those physicians who wish to send personal health information by email should use an encrypted or otherwise secure system.”7 The American Medical Informatics Association has offered similar guidance.8