Monthly Archives: June 2016

Improving email efficiency – ONE-Mail on desktop

For the doctors using ONE-Mail, the Ontario government’s secure email service, it is now possible to connect to your ONE-Mail service using desktop software (MS Outlook or Apple Mail). Instructions are here. They are simple and take 5-10 minutes to implement.

I am not sure how long it has been possible to do this but I’m sure these instructions weren’t available when I first signed up for ONE-Mail. I think it does introduce a possible security concern whereby downloaded email messages could be compromised; therefore it is advisable to use hard drive encryption. In terms of the risk of email being inadvertently forwarded or replying with the wrong email address, I believe it may be slightly higher than when using a webmail app because one could be accessing work and personal email from the same software.

In any case, I have found that it does make the email much more usable as it decreases the time spent reading and replying to messages, and it facilitates good email hygiene (checking messages daily, early in the day). The ability to quickly manipulate (trash, archive, reply) an email message also allows for an “inbox zero” strategy to be implemented whereby emails are cleared, filed, or acted upon immediately rather than allowed to accumulate.

A counter-argument to downloading messages introducing a security vulnerability is that avoiding the secure email address because it is too cumbersome to access the webmail app then could lead to use of personal email addresses for office-related communication. In that case, there is no point having a secure work email address if you don’t use it.

I continue to encourage patients to call instead of send emails as email is inherently insecure regardless of what server is being used. However, when email must be used and precautions are taken to avoid including personal health information it may be a valuable practice management tool.