Media release: Multispecialty physician networks in Ontario

Open Medicine A peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Multispecialty physician networks in Ontario This week, Open Medicine <http://www.openmedicine.ca/> published a paper: “Multispecialty physician networks in Ontario”. The authors investigated the possibility of identifying existing but informal networks among practitioners. Managing chronic diseases is an expensive, long-term and difficult task. However, through effective networks of multispeciality physicians, with a central role for patients’ primary care provider, it is possible to provide high quality care for patients living with chronic disease at low cost. The authors of the present study assessed the extent to which informal, existing multispecialty physician networks in Ontario could be identified. The idea was to use available health administrative data to exploit natural linkages among patients, physicians, and hospitals based on existing patient flow—that is, on where patients naturally go when they require health care.   Networks used in the study were not based on physical or geographical proximity; rather, the authors looked for natural linkages among patients and health care providers by linking Ontario residents to their primary care providers, linking specialists to the hospitals where they provided most in-patient services, and linking primary care physicians to the hospitals where their patients are most often admitted. In this way, the authors were able t...
Source: Open Medicine Blog - - Category: Medical Publishers Authors: Source Type: blogs