Electronic networking refers to any of several forms of information
             exchange between two or more computers through any of several methods of
             interconnection. The use of networking is rapidly spreading throughout
             much of the world as a fast, reliable, and, in most applications,
             inexpensive form of communication. It is inexpensive because it is fast,
             and it can use existing public phone lines. Multiple messages can be sent
             in a single phone call, lowering their average cost. In "packet-switched"
             systems, there is no need to establish a real- time circuit, as in a
             telephone call. Instead, information can be sent in "packets" that are
             encoded with their source and destination(s). Error-correcting modems can
             The network economy is challenging traditional well-established
             health care institutions to develop new patient-oriented models and invest
             in information and communication technologies (Tomasko, 1993). So it is
             obvious that the organization I work with is making extensive use of the
             communication networks for leveraging its patient care needs.
             My organization makes extensive use of most common network
             application: electronic mail (e-mail), whereby messages originating from
             one computer can be sent via some medium to another computer or computers
             that are connected to a network and have an electronic address. The medium
             may be the public phone lines, private dedicated lines, or a radio
             frequency. It is also possible to use networking to transfer lengthy files
             between computers, and to "log on" to a remote computer in order, for
             instance, to search a database for information. These specialized functions
             are dependent upon the particular network protocol used.
             Other common applications that my organization use include "bulletin
             board systems," (BBS) where multiple users access a common message area and
             are able to upload and download files, and "conf
             ...