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Tired of Getting Spam? Physician, Heal Thyself

FROM THE CHIEF MEDICAL EDITOR
Larry E. Patterson, MD

I know I should be writing about something profound, like how upset I am that Congress just passed a massive healthcare entitlement so quickly that they didn't even have time to read what they were voting for, but I'll save that for another time. By the time this gets published, the situation may have all been ruled unconstitutional for all I know. Here's hoping, anyway.

So on to something not as deep but, on a daily basis, just as annoying. I'll start by asking this question: How many of you get too little e-mail, and wish your in-box was just a little more full? If you're like me, you can get hundreds of e-mails a day, often filled with spam suggesting I'm seriously deficient in manliness, or perhaps I can assist one more Nigerian with his cash excess problem.

Unfortunately, I don't have the answers to any of those problems. My oldest son works with computers for a living, and he'd say we are a long way from perfecting spam prevention. But there is something insidious we as doctors are very guilty of, and if we try, we could rise up and help defeat this demon. I'm referring, of course, to responding to e-mails with “reply to all.”

Don't get me wrong. It has its uses. Sometimes a doctor in my group will have a clinical problem and we'll all bat it around in an online discussion. My administrator may send out an e-mail to my optician and me, and we'll work out a problem that way rather than trying to find a time we can all be together. Or board members separated by many states may have a virtual meeting taking place over the course of a day or two, and mass e-mails often beat trying to all get together on a conference call.

But “reply to all” is way overused in most other settings. Like many of you, I'm on several boards and committees, and often a mass e-mail to all members is sent out requesting a response. You need only respond to the person who sent the e-mail. She is the only one who asked the question. The rest of us don't need 20 more e-mails from all recipients letting us know that you personally are OK with the meeting being moved to 7:00 pm.

Another time I've seen this abuse is when a mass mailing is sent out announcing that someone has achieved some important award. That's great, and if I know him well I may send him a congratulatory note. But really, do I need to hear from everyone else on the list that they congratulated him too?

I wasn't sure how to end this column, but the answer just arrived. I'm on a panel at this year's ASCRS meeting. While writing this column, I got an e-mail from the panel coordinator with an announcement, and she requested a simple confirming response. Ironically, before I could finish the column, I'd already received two “reply to all” responses!