Abstract
The present study explores the role that professional networks play in the propensity of hospital
physicians to adopt and implement evidence-based medicine (EBM) into clinical practice. Using attributional
and relational data collected from a sample of 207 physicians in six Italian National Health
Service hospitals, social network techniques were used to analyze the structure of the networks representing
professional interactions among the surveyed hospital physicians. Ordinal logistic regression
was applied to analyze the association between the structural features of physicians’ networks and their
self-reported propensity to implement EBM into daily practice. Physicians who were highly constrained
in their interpersonal networks were less likely to report adopting EBM, suggesting that the cohesion
induced by social interactions may hamper, rather than foster, the diffusion of scientific information
within professional groups. We discuss the implications of the observed interaction patterns for hospital
administrators and policy makers.
Lingua originale | English |
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pagine (da-a) | 798-805 |
Numero di pagine | 8 |
Rivista | SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE |
Volume | 72 |
DOI | |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2011 |
Keywords
- professional networks
- social network analysis