Association between a network-based physician linchpin score and cancer patient mortality: a SEER-Medicare analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patients with cancer frequently require multidisciplinary teams for optimal cancer outcomes. Network analysis can capture relationships among cancer specialists, and we developed a novel physician linchpin score to characterize "linchpin" physicians whose peers have fewer ties to other physicians of the same oncologic specialty. Our study examined whether being treated by a linchpin physician was associated with worse survival.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare data for patients diagnosed with stage I to III non-small cell lung cancer or colorectal cancer (CRC) in 2016-2017. We assembled patient-sharing networks and calculated linchpin scores for medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and s

SUBMITTER: Moen EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10852616 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature