Use of e-mail by dentists is increasing, mainly for inter-professional communications

Key Points

• Electronic mail does not improve response rates over conventional survey techniques for dentists.

• Electronic mail provides the opportunity for rapid response at considerably lower cost than a telephone-based survey.

• Dental practitioners are already starting to use e-mail for as diverse applications as: communication with professional bodies; sending records; making and discussing referrals; placing orders for goods; and in some cases making patient appointments.

Abstract

Objectives

To assess the feasibility of using electronic-mail as a tool for surveying dental practitioners; to determine both response rates and response times for this method; and provide baseline information on e-mail usage.

Method

Self-administered questionnaire distributed by e-mail to 309 practitioners on Monday morning, 1 June 1998.

Results

53.4% response rate within 1 month; 10.2% of replies were sent within 2 hours; and nearly half the replies were sent within 48 hours. Qualified dentists were more likely to respond early than undergraduates. The most popular point of access for e-mail was home (69.1%). The majority of responders (56.8%) use e-mail every day with 1 in 7 (14.2%) using it at least four times a day. 72.4% stated that they found e-mail useful for communicating with professional bodies, while 41.3% used it to communicate with colleagues about patients and patient referrals. 34.0% found e-mail useful for ordering goods and 14.6% were using e-mail to make patient appointments at least some of the time.

Conclusions

Responses can be obtained at much greater speed than conventional postal techniques will allow, but response rates were only 53.4%. E-mail is predominately used at home and for inter-professional communications, only a small proportion of responders use it for direct communication with patients

Log in or create a free account to read this content

Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com

Access through your institution

or

Sign in or create an account

Continue with Google

Continue with ORCiD