Background: Increasingly, consultations in health care settings are conducted remotely using a range of communication technologies. Email allows for 2-way text-based communication, occurring asynchronously. Studies have explored the content and nature of email consultations to understand the use, structure, and function of email consultations. Most previous content analyses of email consultations in primary care settings have been conducted in North America, and these have shown that concerns and assumptions about how email consultations work have not been realized. There has not been a UK-based content analysis of email consultations. Objective: This study aims to explore and delineate the content of consultations conducted via email in English general practice by conducting a content analysis of email consultations between general practitioners (GPs) and patients. Methods: We conducted a content analysis of anonymized email consultations between GPs and patients in 2 general practices in the United Kingdom. We examined the descriptive elements of the correspondence to ascertain when the emails were sent, the number of emails in an email consultation, and the nature of the content. We used a normative approach to analyze the content of the email consultations to explore the use and function of email consultation. Results: We obtained 100 email consultations from 85 patients, which totaled 262 individual emails. Most email users were older than 40 years, and over half of the users were male. The email consultations were mostly short and completed in a few days. Emails were mostly sent and received during the day. The emails were mostly clinical in content rather than administrative and covered a wide range of clinical presentations. There were 3 key themes to the use and function of the email consultations: the role of the GP and email consultation, the transactional nature of an email consultation, and the operationalization of an email consultation. Conclusions: Most cases where emails are used to have a consultation with a patient in general practice have a shorter consultation, are clinical in nature, and are resolved quickly. GPs approach email consultations using key elements similar to that of the face-to-face consultation; however, using email consultations has the potential to alter the role of the GP, leading them to engage in more administrative tasks than usual. Email consultations were not a replacement for face-to-face consultations.

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中文翻译：

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初级保健中患者和医生之间的电子邮件咨询：内容分析

背景：越来越多地使用多种通讯技术在医疗机构中进行咨询。电子邮件允许异步进行基于双向文本的双向通信。研究已经探索了电子邮件咨询的内容和性质，以了解电子邮件咨询的用途，结构和功能。以前，大多数在初级保健机构中进行电子邮件咨询的内容分析都是在北美进行的，这些分析表明，人们尚未意识到有关电子邮件咨询工作方式的担忧和假设。还没有基于英国的电子邮件咨询内容分析。目的：本研究旨在通过对全科医生（GPs）和患者之间的电子邮件咨询内容进行分析，以探索和描绘英语通用实践中通过电子邮件进行咨询的内容。方法：我们在英国的2种常规实践中，对GP和患者之间的匿名电子邮件咨询进行了内容分析。我们检查了通信的描述性元素，以确定电子邮件的发送时间，电子邮件咨询中的电子邮件数量以及内容的性质。我们使用一种规范方法来分析电子邮件咨询的内容，以探索电子邮件咨询的用途和功能。结果：我们从85位患者那里获得了100封电子邮件咨询，总计262封个人电子邮件。大多数电子邮件用户的年龄超过40岁，超过一半的用户是男性。电子邮件咨询通常很短，几天之内就完成了。电子邮件大部分是在白天发送和接收的。这些电子邮件主要是临床内容，而不是行政内容，涵盖了广泛的临床演示。电子邮件咨询的使用和功能有3个关键主题：GP和电子邮件咨询的作用，电子邮件咨询的交易性质以及电子邮件咨询的可操作性。结论：在通常情况下，电子邮件通常用于与患者进行咨询的大多数情况下，咨询的时间较短，具有临床性质并且可以迅速得到解决。全科医生使用类似于面对面咨询的关键要素来进行电子邮件咨询；然而，使用电子邮件咨询可能会改变GP的角色，从而导致他们从事比平常更多的管理任务。电子邮件咨询不能代替面对面的咨询。

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