Background: There is substantial variation in the cost and intensity of care delivered by US hospitals. We assessed how the structure of patient-sharing networks of physicians affiliated with hospitals might contribute to this variation. http://humannaturelab.net/wp-content/themes/human-nature-lab/media/pdf/publications/articles/128.pdf

BACKGROUND: Specialty referral patterns can affect health care costs as well as clinical outcomes. For a given clinical problem, referring physicians usually have a choice of several physicians to whom they can refer. Once the decision to refer is made, the choice of individual physician may have important downstream effects. OBJECTIVE: To examine the reasons why

Context: Physicians are embedded in informal networks that result from their sharing of patients, information, and behaviors. Objectives: To identify professional networks among physicians, examine how such networks vary across geographic regions, and determine factors associated with physician connections. http://humannaturelab.net/wp-content/themes/human-nature-lab/media/pdf/publications/articles/134.pdf