Email contact with patients

What ethical issues have arisen from use of new technologies in medicine, such as email contact with patients?

There have been many issues, although it’s not something I’ve focused on personally. The issues concern privacy—something as simple as knowing whether the person you’re corresponding with electronically is who he or she purports to be. In pediatrics, that’s a big issue, because someone might pretend to be their 14-year-old son or daughter who we’ve promised confidentiality to. And the parent is trying to get around that promise by getting information out of us electronically without our being able to confirm who he or she is. Most of the issues we’ve faced electronically have to do with, in one form or another, privacy confidentiality. On a day-to-day basis, the bigger issues have to do with adequacy of informed consent, end-of-life decision making, limits on medical intervention, and issues around the appropriateness of including patients as subjects in research trials.

Source: http://www.hcplive.com/mdnglive/articles/Onc_Medical_Ethicist