By Robert Frederick, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds St. Louis is the only U.S. city to rank in the top five for all three of the most common STD's.
Researchers found that text messaging saved clinics money and cut down the time it took to contact patients, which, in turn, led to faster treatment.
Health Law Studies co-director Nicolas Terry with the Saint Louis University School of Law says in the U.S., interstate communication poses a real problem for health care providers who want to text message patients.
"The problem is if a health care provider in one state, who is licensed for example in Missouri and only in Missouri, transmits data to a patient in another state where they are not licensed," Terry said.
As for legal issues surrounding privacy, Terry says those could be overcome by using general messages such as "your test results are in, please call."