Text messaging a valuable tool for GPs

A new study has suggested that GPs could use text messaging to help improve their care for patients with potential symptoms of cancer.

Published in the British Journal of General Practice, the study, based on a qualitative focus group and interview study with London-based GPs, explores the feasibility of using text messages to safety net patients presenting with low-risk cancer symptoms in GP primary care.

Safety netting is vital in the diagnostic strategy of patients presenting with low-risk cancer symptoms in GP primary care, requesting patients return if their symptoms persist. The research indicates that text messaging could help minimise delays in diagnosis by taking some of the onus away from the patient to book follow-up appointments. Instead, text messaging could be used as an additional tool to help manage patients and promote symptom awareness.

Among the difficulties highlighted in the research, the report highlighted how ‘further work is needed to ensure it is cost-effective, user-friendly, confidential, and acceptable to patients’, and also raised doubts over whether sending complex safety netting advice within the constraints of a text was wise, or indeed feasible.

Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Text message reminders about appointments have been used routinely for many years in some practices. However we would be cautious about SMS communication with patients with, or potentially with, cancer given that there are so many sensitive psychological and emotional reactions that a person may experience as a result, and a face-to-face consultation would be more appropriate. But for 'safety-netting', whereby low-risk patients are asked to return to the GP for further tests if their symptoms that could indicate cancer persist, this research shows that text messaging can be a valuable tool in reaching out to these patients and ensuring that if they do have cancer, it is identified in a timely way.

"As with any new initiative, it would also be important to rigorously evaluate it in terms of its benefit for patients and the wider NHS before it was rolled out widely. And GP practices must be mindful of the potential security limitations of texting, especially for people who share their phones, and only send text messages to patients if they have given us permission to communicate with them in this way.”