Purpose

The purpose of this article is to explore the association of the Relational Capital (RC) embedded in a medical specialist’s social–professional network with the specialist’s economic performance based on social network analysis (SNA).

Design/methodology/approach

Using health insurance claims data regarding ∼108,000 physicians treating ∼72,000,000 patients, social–professional networks (patient-sharing-networks (PSNs)) of ∼26,000 medical specialists were simulated. To explore the correlation of the network's characteristics (degree centrality, density, relative betweenness centrality and referrer concentration) with economic performance, ordinary-least-squares (OLS)-regression models were estimated for ten common specialties (gynecology, internal medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dermatology, urology, neurology, radiology and rehabilitative medicine).

Findings

The study confirms the applicability and strong explanatory power of SNA metrics for RC measurement in ambulatory healthcare. Degree centrality and relative betweenness centrality correlate positively with economic performance, whereas density and referrer concentration exhibit negative coefficients. These results confirm the argument that RC has a strong association with the economic performance of medical specialists.

Originality/value

The study pioneers SNA for RC measurement in healthcare. It is among the first publications on specialists' PSNs. Questions for future research are proposed.

中文翻译：

---

办公室环境中医学专家推荐人网络中的关系资本

目的

本文的目的是基于社会网络分析 (SNA) 探讨医学专家的社会职业网络中嵌入的关系资本 (RC) 与专家的经济绩效之间的关联。

设计/方法/途径

使用约 108,000 名医生治疗约 72,000,000 名患者的健康保险索赔数据，模拟了约 26,000 名医学专家的社会专业网络（患者共享网络 (PSN)）。为了探索网络特征（度中心性、密度、相对介数中心性和推荐人集中度）与经济绩效的相关性，对十个常见专业（妇科、内科、骨科、眼科、耳鼻喉科、皮肤科、泌尿科、神经科、放射科和康复医学）。

发现

该研究证实了 SNA 指标在门诊医疗保健中用于 RC 测量的适用性和强大的解释力。度中心性和相对介数中心性与经济绩效呈正相关，而密度和推荐人集中度呈负相关。这些结果证实了 RC 与医学专家的经济表现有很强关联的论点。

原创性/价值

该研究开创了用于医疗保健 RC 测量的 SNA。它是关于专家 PSN 的首批出版物之一。提出了未来研究的问题。