Patient-sharing among Diabetes Healthcare Professionals: A Network Analysis Approach to Examine Collaboration
Mina Ostovari, PhD
Lead Research Investigator, Christiana Care Health Services, Inc
Affiliated Faculty, Data Science Institute, UD
Abstract: Effective diabetes management requires the collaboration of healthcare professionals with various specialties. Medical claims data that capture patients’ and healthcare professionals’ information, presents a unique opportunity to conduct a comprehensive analysis of diabetes care teams on a large scale. In this talk, I will present a study in which we examined the collaboration between healthcare professionals involved in diabetes care pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. The study population consisted of patients with diabetes Type I/II. Social network analysis (SNA) was employed to create patient-sharing networks of healthcare professionals involved in diabetes care from medical claims data. Providers who share patients, such as a primary care provider and a specialist, are likely to have a formal/informal working relationship, such as referrals or communications about patients. Using SNA measures, including density and centrality, we characterized patient-sharing networks for each year between 2018 to 2021. The density of networks, numbers of nodes and edges, increased between 2018 to 2019, but decreased in 2020 and 2021, possibly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on centrality measures, the central provider was internal medicine in all networks. The findings of this study will inform future efforts to improve diabetes collaborative care.
Bio: Dr. Ostovari is a Lead Research Investigator at the Institute for Research on Equity and Community Health (iREACH), Christiana Care Health Services, Inc. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Ostovari is interested in the application of social network analysis and machine learning for improving access to care and health outcomes for patients with chronic conditions. She has successfully obtained external funding, including a Mentored Research Development Award (MRDA) in 2019 and a pilot grant from the DE-CTR ACCEL program in 2021. She has presented her research in multiple national and international conferences, including the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium, and has several publications in peer-reviewed journals, such as PLOS One and JAMIA.
