[Recommendations for the use of electronic mail in primary care]

Email is a great communication tool, but it's still rarely used by healthcare professionals. It can be used in exchanging information between healthcare professionals, but also among healthcare providers and patients. Studies that demonstrate a positive impact of email communication between health professionals and patients in the quality of healthcare are still lacking. Hence, an increasing number of patients want to communicate through email with their doctors. Clinical use of electronic mail should respect a certain number of rules, first of all using an encrypted system.