Beyond the Inbox: Why Email Alone Can’t Power the IVF Journey

When fertility clinics first moved away from paper, email felt like progress. Messages could be sent instantly. Appointments could be confirmed with a click. Teams could reach patients more quickly and patients could get the answers they needed.

But in 2025, email isn’t enough.

Across the IVF journey, patients, nurses, coordinators and consultants are all relying on fragmented inboxes, scattered threads, and manual follow-ups. And while email has its place, it simply wasn’t built for the complexity, pace, and emotional intensity of fertility care.

Here’s why clinics need to move beyond the inbox and what a better system looks like.

1. Email Isn’t Designed for Timely, High-Stakes Communication

IVF treatment is highly time-sensitive. Medication schedules, scan timings, lab updates—these aren’t messages that can sit unread in an inbox for hours or days. Yet this is what often happens when clinics rely solely on email.

Patients may miss critical messages, particularly when they’re anxious or overwhelmed. Internal teams may forget to follow up on an email buried in a Monday morning flood. And unlike centralised systems, email offers no way to track message status or automate reminders.

In short: email depends too much on people remembering, rather than systems ensuring.

2. One Thread, Many Questions, No Structure

Most fertility patients don’t just have one question—they have ten. And often, they don’t know which team member to ask. So everything goes into one long email chain, bouncing between admin, nursing, and consultants.

For clinic staff, this creates confusion, duplication, and risk. Who answered what? Did anyone confirm the medication update? Has that consent form been sent? Is that patient still waiting on a response?

Without a structured system to triage, assign, and track patient communication, things fall through the cracks.

3. Email Isn’t Secure Enough for Sensitive Health Data

Fertility care involves some of the most personal and sensitive health data—medication protocols, hormonal test results, sexual health history, embryo status. And while many clinics add disclaimers or encourage password-protected attachments, email is still one of the least secure ways to exchange this kind of information.

Under GDPR and regulatory frameworks, clinics are responsible for protecting patient data—not just in storage, but in transit. Purpose-built digital platforms with secure logins, access controls and encryption offer a significantly safer alternative.

4. Patients Expect More Than Just Email Now

We live in a world of banking apps, instant health tracking, and same-day delivery updates. Patients expect clarity and control—and in fertility care, this expectation is even higher.

When patients can’t track appointments, see results, or message securely in one place, it doesn’t just create admin pressure. It erodes trust.

The most progressive clinics are using digital patient platforms to deliver clarity: daily treatment plans, message timelines, automated updates, all in one app. Email just can’t match that experience.

5. Staff Deserve Tools That Reduce Pressure, Not Add to It

Finally, email overload isn’t just a patient issue- it’s a staff wellbeing issue too.

Clinic teams, particularly nurses and coordinators, often spend hours every week trying to manage communication across multiple inboxes. It’s exhausting, reactive work. It takes time away from patient-facing care. And it often results in avoidable errors or duplicate admin.

Digital platforms allow clinics to set up structured, role-based messaging with automated triage, reducing inbox chaos and letting staff focus on what matters most: care.

The Bottom Line

Email will always have its place in clinic communication- but it can’t be the foundation.

For fertility care to be truly patient-centred, communication needs to be:

• Structured
• Secure
• Timely
• Trackable
• And shared across the right team members at the right time.

That’s the difference between a good clinic and a great one.

At Salve, we work with leading fertility clinics to modernise their patient communication systems- offering one clear channel for secure, coordinated, and compassionate care.

Because when the message is clear, the journey feels more manageable, for everyone.