The Impact of Social Contagion on Physician Adoption of Advanced Imaging Tests in Breast Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans are widely used in breast cancer practice despite unproven benefits. We examined the extent to which social contagion is associated with adoption of these imaging modalities. We used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare to construct peer groups of physicians who shared patients during a baseline period when these imaging modalities were starting to disseminate into practice (2004-2006) and determined the potential impact of these peer groups during a follow-up period (2007-2009). For non-early-adopting surgeons (whose patients did not receive MRI/PET during baseline), we used hierarchical logistic regression models to examine the effect of their peer group's baseline use on their use of MRI/PET du

SUBMITTER: Pollack CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6059114 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature