How Dana-Farber Uses Email to Connect with Patients and Families

Security advantages of Patient Gateway messages

Patient Gateway offers a secure and convenient way to email your clinician or request routine appointments, prescriptions, and referral authorizations. Here are some of the differences between Patient Gateway and regular email.

Regular email

• Copies of messages may remain on the user’s computer or an employer's server.
• Messages can be mistakenly sent to an unintended recipient.
• The identity of someone who reads the messages can be unknown.
• Messages can be encrypted, but this doesn’t always happen. Patient Gateway messages

Patient Gateway messages

• Messages do not leave the secure Partners server. There are no copies on other machines.
• Messages do not reach parties outside the secure Partners system.
• The identity of the person who opens and reads the message is known and logged.
• Messages are always encrypted when they are transmitted.