title: Desiderata for personal electronic communication in clinical systems.
abstract: Electronic communication among clinicians and patients is becoming an essential part of medical practice. Evaluation and selection of these electronic systems, called personal clinical electronic communication (PCEC) systems, can be a difficult task in institutions that have no prior experience with such systems. It is particularly difficult in the clinical context. To directly address this point, the authors consulted a group of potential users affiliated with a nationally recognized telemedicine project, to determine important characteristics of a hypothetical PCEC system. They compiled a list of these characteristics and produced a desiderata, or list of desired features, for PCEC systems. Two conventional e-mail implementations and three Web-based PCEC systems were evaluated with respect to the features. The Web-based systems all scored higher than conventional e-mail. It is the hope of the authors that this paper will initiate further discussions about the features of PCEC systems and how to evaluate them.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Indra Neil
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Starren
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D016494:Computer Security; D003219:Confidentiality; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration