An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Internet messaging system will connect patients and doctors

  • Published
  • 375th Medical Group
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  The 375th Medical Group is rolling out the red carpet for one of its newest electronic health initiative projects.

Secure Messaging is an online, confidential, health care messaging system. This Internet-based service, being provided by the Air Force through RelayHealth, will be launched at Scott Air Force Base in mid-December.

Many civilian health care organizations have invested in this system because it has been shown to significantly increase the ability of patients to communicate with their medical providers. Patients have been very satisfied with the system's ability to virtually eliminate "phone tag" when trying to schedule appointments or obtain medication refills or laboratory results. The 375th Medical Group's goal is to see RelayHealth quickly become the predominant form of communication between patients and their health care team.

RelayHealth is accessible worldwide. From any location in the world with Internet access patients can request an appointment, get test results, request prescription refills or simply ask their health care team a medical question via a secure electronic message that bypasses phone-trees, voicemail, and phone tag.

According to Col. Mark Brooks, Chief of the Medical Staff of the 375th Medical Group, "This is a great system. It will not replace face-to-face contact with your family medical provider, but will allow you greatly improved access to your medical team in situations where you don't actually need to see your provider."

Although this capability will not exist immediately, in the future RelayHealth will also be the gateway for patients to access and even update their own personal health record. They will be able to view and update information, such as current medication lists, medication allergies, chronic conditions, and past medical and surgical history. Secure Messaging has been designed to support patients and health care teams in the family health, flight medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics clinics. Implementation of Secure Messaging will be Air Force wide, so once registered, a patient will remain in the system. During a Permanent Change of Station, users accounts will travel with them and can be connected to a new PCM at a new duty station.

After the launch of RelayHealth in mid-December the 375th Medical Group will establish several means of registering for access, which will require a face-to-face registration process. After registration, the patient must send an electronic request to be accepted by his or her provider. Once the provider accepts the request, confidential messaging may begin.