Association Between Degrees of Separation in Physician Networks and Surgeons' Use of Perioperative Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Perioperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is frequently used in breast cancer despite unproven benefits. It is unclear whether surgeons' use of breast MRI is associated with the practices of other surgeons to whom they are connected through shared patients.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective study using Medicare data to identify physicians providing breast cancer care during 2007-2009 and grouped them into patient-sharing networks. Physician pairs were classified according to their "degree of separation" based on patient-sharing (eg, physician pairs that care for the same patients were separated by 1 degree; pairs that both share patients with another physician but not with each other were separated by 2 degrees). We assessed the association between the MRI

SUBMITTER: Shi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6522278 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature