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

Main

A survey of dental practitioners on their use of electronic mail R Muhumuza, D R Moles and R Bedi Br Dent J 1999; 186: 30–36

Comment

The internet, of which e-mail is just one subset, is now a recognised form of communication for the masses. Even in the UK it is astonishing to think that FreeServe, (the free internet connection provided by Dixons) has managed to attract over 700,000 members in just a matter of a few months. This paper describes a survey that had three objectives; to see how suitable e-mail would be as a tool for surveying dental practitioners, to assess the response of dentists and to find out about their usage of e-mail.

The authors found that e-mail was a useful tool for surveying dental practitioners. The time saved in not having to print out, collate and fold the questionnaire, and in not having to print and attach address labels, lick stamps and insert the paper into the envelopes would be quite substantial. The savings in the cost of the stamps alone would have been over £100. The other advantage of e-mail over 'snail mail' is the rapid speed in reply; almost half of the respondents replied within 48 hours. The ability to know if the message was not received is useful but also highlights the importance of keeping any database of members up to date. Speaking as one of the respondents who took part in this particular survey, I found the questionnaire very quick and easy to answer. I always receive and send my e-mail at a time that is convenient to me; letters, telephone calls and faxes often arrive at a time when I am busy doing other things.

Although the response rate was 'only' 53.4%, anyone who has been through the rigmarole of sending out a postal questionnaire to dentists will appreciate that this is actually quite a respectable figure, especially considering that only one reminder was sent out.

The survey showed that most of the respondents accessed their e-mail from home and used it everyday. As suggested in the paper, e-mail could be an ideal communication medium for carrying out a rapid straw pole amongst a large number of dentists. It could also be an excellent way for the BDA or GDC to bring to the attention some important news or changes in regulations.

There is a need for some controlling body to keep and maintain an accurate list of e-mail addresses of UK dentists. There would need to be some restrictions on who had access to the list since there could be a real risk of attracting unwanted and unsolicited adverts (spam) from unscrupulous dental and general sales persons.

I hope that this survey will be the first of many that will look at how dentists are using new communication technology to enhance their practice of dentistry.