Table 5.

Exemplar quotes of facilitators of using Secure Messaging.

Theme	Exemplar quotes
Convenience	I was taking nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and they expire quickly, and, if I look at my med history, I’ll see that it’s expired and that I’m not scheduled to see [my primary] to order more. So I would send a secure message stating that I’ve ran out of my nicotine gum…and they came in the mail. And I just love that! I love that, whereas you can use Secure Messaging like that instead of getting on the phone and trying to describe it and telling them your last four of your Social Security Number.
	The great thing is, when you get a response from your [primary care] team, you also get a notification in your private email letting you know you have a new Secure Message. So at least I know somebody replied back and that’s a feature that I believe is, is working great, because you know somebody answered you. That way you know, you got to go back and log on and get into your Secure Messaging.
Secure Messaging user-friendly features	One feature that I use is you can create more folders, that you can save and divide your messages from your primary doctors, or create another one for your nurse, or your team, or by illness. I have some friends that divided their [secure messages] by illness, because sometimes you’re requesting information about a prescription and you can keep all that in a folder…I try to keep my Inbox clean.
	To be able to [use] the dropdown box where I can see my primary doctor, and when I click in her email address and then I can put my message in the area where I’m supposed to type it in and hit send. It’s very simple, you know, it’s very simple. Then I go back and check it in the Inbox I’ll have a message and, uh, just read it…