Sending a heart, a smiley face or a tears of laughter emoji in a text with another doctor may not just be a handy shortcut, but could also enhance communications. 

A study looking at over 1300 texts between doctors at a large US hospital found 7% of the messages included emojis or emoticons, which the authors group together as ideograms. 

Given the uptick in text communications, and speculation emojis may diminish professionalism, the researchers set out to uncover what impact the symbols have on medical communications. 

“Both popular media and institutional policies have suggested that the use of ideograms in professional communication may be inappropriate,” they wrote in JAMA Network Open.