New Study Finds Structured Networks Can Help Reduce Medical Errors
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has found that using structured networks to connect clinicians with other clinicians can significantly reduce errors in patient diagnosis and treatment. The study, which involved nearly 3,000 doctors across the United States, revealed that clinicians who were shown the diagnostic decisions of their peers made recommendations that were twice as accurate as those who made decisions on their own.
The researchers developed an app for the study, which prompted doctors to evaluate real-life clinical cases and provide their diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. The control group answered questions in isolation, while the experimental group was connected in a social network with other anonymous clinicians whose responses they could see.
The results showed that the overall accuracy of clinicians’ decisions increased twice as much in the networks compared to the control group. The networks also improved the performance of initially worst-performing clinicians, with a 15% increase in the fraction of clinicians who ultimately made the correct recommendation.
“We can use doctors’ networks to improve their performance,” said Damon Centola, Professor and Director of the Network Dynamics Group at the Annenberg School for Communication and lead researcher of the study. “Doctors talk to each other, and we’ve known that for a long time. The real discovery here is that we can structure the information-sharing networks among doctors to substantially increase their clinical intelligence.”
The study also highlighted the importance of creating egalitarian networks in medicine to level the playing field. Typically, in-person consultation networks in medicine are hierarchical, with senior practitioners having more influence. However, anonymized egalitarian networks were found to improve decision-making across the board and increase the diversity of voices influencing clinical decisions.
The researchers believe that implementing these findings can be done without reinventing the wheel. Existing e-consult technologies, where clinicians seek advice from outside specialists, could be expanded to include a network of specialists instead of relying on a single person. The researchers noted that the implementation of their network technology would not require a large number of members, with 40 members being ideal for a steep jump in clinicians’ collective intelligence.
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has already funded a pilot implementation of this program, which is set to begin within the year. The researchers hope that their findings will lead to improved clinical care and a reduction in medical errors, ultimately saving lives.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Source: University of Pennsylvania
Journal reference: Centola, D. et al. (2023) Experimental evidence for structured information–sharing networks reducing medical errors. PNAS. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108290120.