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 response times for this method; and provide baseline information on e-mail usage.

METHOD

Self-administered questionnaire distributed by e-mail to 309 practitioners on Monday morning, 1 June 1998.

RESULTS

53.4% response rate within 1 month; 10.2% of replies were sent within 2 hours; and nearly half the replies were sent within 48 hours. Qualified 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 responders (56.8%) use e-mail every day with 1 in 7 (14.2%) using it at least four times a day. 72.4% stated that they found e-mail useful for communicating with professional bodies, while 41.3% used it to communicate with colleagues about patients and patient referrals. 34.0% found e-mail useful for ordering goods, and supplies and 14.6% were using electronic mail to make patient appointments at least some of the time.

CONCLUSIONS

Responses can be obtained at much greater speed than conventional postal techniques will allow, but response rates were only 53.4%. E-mail is predominately used at home and for inter-professional communications, only a small proportion of responders use it for direct communication with patients.