How do patients and general practitioners in Denmark perceive the communicative advantages and disadvantages of access via email consultations? A media-theoretical qualitative study.

Drawing on a media perspective, this study adds knowledge of how the potentials of the medium of email consultations are perceived by GPs and patients. Email consultations do not simply extend existing forms of contact and consultation (face-to-face and telephone); they produce a new communication space with its own possibilities which result in new practices. With increasing use of email consultations, there may be challenges involved in transferring GP-patient communication to the written medium.