Patients who include their doctor's name in electronic messages are nearly twice as likely to receive a reply, according to a study by Harvard University researchers. The analysis of 3.6 million patient messages from over 511,000 individuals found that factors such as length, formality, greeting, sentiment, and punctuation all play a role in whether a message receives a response.
Data drawn from the Mass General Brigham electronic health record system indicated that messages beginning with a doctor's name had a response rate of nearly 40 percent, compared to 26 percent for those without such a greeting. This suggests that message writing style, not just content, can influence response likelihood.
The study also identified potential disparities, noting that patients for whom English is not their first language, those with lower educational attainment, and non-white patients were less likely to receive replies to their queries. Lead researcher Dr. Mitchell Tang stated that these findings suggest message writing style could be a source of bias in message triage and may inform solutions for mitigating such disparities.
These findings emerge amidst a context where communication with general practitioners can be challenging. Surveys indicate that nearly half of Britons do not know their GP's name. A 2018 analysis revealed that only 41 percent of British adults managed to secure an appointment with their doctor within a year. In instances where patients could not see their doctor, 13 percent reported ignoring their problem, which led to five percent of those individuals ending up in the hospital.
For non-emergency issues, the National Health Service currently advises patients to fill out a form via the NHS app. This form is triaged by the surgery team, and patients are expected to receive an appointment, a phone consultation, a text response, or advice to seek care at a pharmacy or other NHS service.