Providing Information to Referring Physicians and Patients

Abstract

Sjogren's syndrome (SS) contains both glandular (lacrimal and salivarygland) features and extraglandular manifestations that create multiplephysical, emotional, occupational, and financial problems clown theroad. Although many physicians and medical centers are moving towardintegrated electronic medical records, these systems will take years todevelop for use within a given institution and more years for them tosecurely communicate with electronic systems outside their owninstitution. In general, these systems are not designed to communicatewith patients due to issues of patient confidentiality. This chapteraddresses an approach that we have been using to provide both referringphysicians, members of the health care team, and patients withinformation.