Surgeon and Care Team Network Measures and Timely Breast Cancer Treatment.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Cancer treatment delay is a recognized marker of worse outcomes. Timely treatment may be associated with physician patient-sharing network characteristics, yet this remains understudied.

Objective

To examine the associations of surgeon and care team patient-sharing network measures with breast cancer treatment delay.

Design, setting, and participants

This cross-sectional study of Medicare claims in a US population-based setting was conducted from 2017 to 2020. Eligible participants included patients with breast cancer who received surgery and the subset who went on to receive adjuvant therapy. Patient-sharing networks were constructed for treating physicians. Data were analyzed from September 2023 to February 2024.

Exposures

Surgeon linchpin score (a

SUBMITTER: Ash R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11362867 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature