Abstract
BackgroundSocial network analysis (SNA) has been widely used across a range of disciplines but is most commonly applied to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of decision making processes in commercial organisations. We are utilising SNA to inform the development and implementation of tailored behaviour-change interventions to improve the uptake of evidence into practice in the English National Health Service. To inform this work, we conducted a systematic scoping review to identify and evaluate the use of SNA as part of an intervention to support the implementation of change in healthcare settings.Methods and FindingsWe searched ten bibliographic databases to October 2011. We also searched reference lists, hand searched selected journals and websites, and contacted experts in the field. To be eligible for the review, studies had to describe and report the results of an SNA performed with healthcare professionals (e.g. doctors, nurses, pharmacists, radiographers etc.) and others involved in their professional social networks. We included 52 completed studies, reported in 62 publications. Almost all of the studies were limited to cross sectional descriptions of networks; only one involved using the results of the SNA as part of an intervention to change practice.ConclusionsWe found very little evidence for the potential of SNA being realised in healthcare settings. However, it seems unlikely that networks are less important in healthcare than other settings. Future research should seek to go beyond the merely descriptive to implement and evaluate SNA-based interventions.
Highlights
Diffusion of innovations theory provides a framework for explaining how new ideas and practices spread within a social system [1]
We found very little evidence for the potential of Social network analysis (SNA) being realised in healthcare settings
Research funded by the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Service Delivery and Organisation Programme [2] and more recently the development of NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs), has refocused attention on the role of social interactions and networks in the ability of health service organisations to identify and exploit knowledge from outside the National Health Service (NHS)
Summary
Diffusion of innovations theory provides a framework for explaining how new ideas and practices spread within a social system [1]. Social network analysis has been widely used across a range of disciplines but is most commonly applied to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of decision making processes in commercial organisations. It does have some tradition of use in diffusion research [7,8]. Social network analysis (SNA) has been widely used across a range of disciplines but is most commonly applied to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of decision making processes in commercial organisations. We are utilising SNA to inform the development and implementation of tailored behaviour-change interventions to improve the uptake of evidence into practice in the English National Health Service. We conducted a systematic scoping review to identify and evaluate the use of SNA as part of an intervention to support the implementation of change in healthcare settings
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