A number of authors (Ray & Mukherjee 2007, Pan & Pokharel 2007) suggest that the use of ICTs in any business setting improves the current ways business is transacted (improvement to efficiency); new ways that business might be transacted (improvement to effectiveness); and communication. It is appropriate to consider these separately.
Improvement to the Efficiency of the Practice
Grimson, Grimson, & Hasselbring (2000) and Baldwin et al. (2002) suggest that as medical care is information-intensive, the information coming often from a variety of sources, the use of ICTs can only enhance the overall efficiency of the process. At an observable level, these improvements are seen in such things as more timely sharing of information, knowledge and expertise (Andersson et al., 2002; Fors & Moreno 2002), improvement to medical teaching facilities (Valcke & De Wever,
2006) and the distribution of these to developing economies (Gani & Clemes, 2006).