A survey of dental practitioners on their use of electronic mail

Objectives To assess the feasibility of using electronic-mail as a tool for surveying dental practitioners; to determine both response rates and respo nse times for this method; and provide baseline information on e-mail usage . Method Self-administered questionnaire distributed by e-mail to 309 practit ioners on Monday morning, 1 June 1998. Results 53.4% response rate within 1 month; 10.2% of replies were sent with in 2 hours; and nearly half the replies were sent within 48 hours. Qualifie d 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 respon ders (56.8%) use e-mail every day with 1 in 7 (14.2%) using it at least fou r times a day. 72.4% stated that they found e-mail. useful for communicatin g with professional bodies, while 41.3% used it to communicate with colleag ues about patients and patient referrals. 34.0% found e-mail useful for ord ering goods, and supplies and 14.6% were using electronic mail to make pati ent appointments at least some of the time. Conclusions Responses can be obtained at much greater speed. than conventio nal postal techniques will allow, but response rates were only 53.4%. E-mai l is predominately used at home and for inter-professional communications, only a small proportion of responders use it for direct communication with patients.