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Abstract:
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For patients with palpable breast masses, minimally invasive breast biopsy (MIBB) is the gold standard diagnostic. Several studies have demonstrated that surgeon and facility variation in the use of MIBB is significant, prompting to further study and understand these variations. Social Network Analysis is a methodology that can explore these variations by specifically examining a physician’s network. This work seeks to explore how a physician collaboration network affects their use of minimally invasive breast biopsy. Using Texas Medicare data, we created collaboration networks of physicians involved in breast cancer care for seven regions in Texas, and described network characteristics over time. Further, we developed network autocorrelation models for two regions to determine whether a physician’s network position affects whether their patients received MIBB. Results revealed that network characteristics varied between regions and across time. Models revealed that the characteristics of a physician’s neighbors affect that physician’s use of MIBB. These results imply that these networks are describing a referral network rather than a collaboration network.
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