Timely Digital Patient-Clinician Communication in Specialist Clinical Services for Young People: A Mixed-Methods Study (The LYNC Study).

Science.gov (United States)

Griffiths, Frances; Bryce, Carol; Cave, Jonathan; Dritsaki, Melina; Fraser, Joseph; Hamilton, Kathryn; Huxley, Caroline; Ignatowicz, Agnieszka; Kim, Sung Wook; Kimani, Peter K; Madan, Jason; Slowther, Anne-Marie; Sujan, Mark; Sturt, Jackie

2017-04-10

improve trust. The clinical teams studied had not themselves formally evaluated the impact of their intervention. Staff time is the main cost driver, but offsetting savings are likely elsewhere in the health service. Risks include increased dependence on clinicians, inadvertent disclosure of confidential information, and communication failures, which are mostly mitigated by young people and clinicians using common-sense approaches. As NHS policy prompts more widespread use of digital communication to improve the health care experience, our findings suggest that benefit is most likely, and harms are mitigated, when digital communication is used with patients who already have a relationship of trust with the clinical team, and where there is identifiable need for patients to have flexible access, such as when transitioning between services, treatments, or lived context. Clinical teams need a proactive approach to ethics, governance, and patient safety. ©Frances Griffiths, Carol Bryce, Jonathan Cave, Melina Dritsaki, Joseph Fraser, Kathryn Hamilton, Caroline Huxley, Agnieszka Ignatowicz, Sung Wook Kim, Peter K Kimani, Jason Madan, Anne-Marie Slowther, Mark Sujan, Jackie Sturt. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 10.04.2017.