the trouble with email

the trouble with email as a "push" form of communication is ...

...if you send it to everyone you're not sure if anyone is going to read it or act on it {and the race to the bottom of a stack of emails (or to the trash bin) is pretty quick for most people.}

...if you send it to one person you are almost certainly excluding someone who has opinions, knowledge, or a stake in the issue

...if try to go the middle route and pick a few people it seems to both exclude and go unread by those you'd like to read it. {and the serial nature of a thread can really hamper having a robust discussion}

blogging, as a "pull" form of communication helps with this problem. but it can simply go unread.

and that's fine because people have a right and a need to triage all the information flying at them.

but there needs to be a better way (or better use of existing mechanisms) to help people triage the "push" that they're receiving. Flags, marking "priority", and similar are commonly used (and overused) but within organizations (and beyond) it would be nice if there was some convention to it.

We all have our own organization scheme for our inbox (and no organization scheme is still one). It'd be interesting to see what's the most efficient scheme we use to save and retrieve the emails we RECEIVE and tailor some prioritization scheme to the emails we SEND.

this is the kind of thing an electronic resources committee could ponder.

not to try and be a whole new IT department. instead as an organized group to brainstorm, liaison, and advise.

Other issues could be considered:
Departmental and residency web pages
Individual and departmental blogs
Intranet and internet resources for care and patient education
Electronic health record
Webcasting and other ways of disseminating educational information