The influence of strong and weak ties in physician peer networks on new drug adoption.

Physicians interact and exchange information through various social networks. Understanding peer effects through different networks can help accelerate new medical technology and innovative treatment adoption. In this research, we measure the influence of strong-tie and weak-tie connections on new drug adoption and study the overlap between advice-discussion and patient-sharing network. We construct two physician networks with strong and weak ties from peer nomination surveys and commercial medical claims data. We design a dynamic system to define peer adoption status and build patient-level hierarchical logistic models to measure the peer influence on new product adoption for treating new-to-therapy patients. Our results show that A strong-tie early adoption peer has six times more influence on new drug adoption than a weak-tie peer. Weak tie peers collectively exert as much or higher influence than strong-tie peers because of the larger network size. In the case of inaccessibility to strong-tie data, researchers can still reliably use the influence of the weak tie data only even though they will lose the effect of the omitted strong ties.

Wearable device adoption among older adults: A mixed-methods study.

Recently, the popularity of smart wearable technologies, such as Fitbit, has significantly increased. There are numerous potential benefits in using these devices, especially among seniors. Yet, little is known about seniors' adoption behavior. Through a mixed-methods approach, this study investigates the factors that impact seniors' intention to use wearable devices. Results from an online survey and interviews showed that seniors' perception of the complexity of working with these devices is a barrier to their adoption decisions. Looking more deeply into the role of complexity revealed that seniors' concern about the complexity of reading and interpreting the output of wearable devices is the main deterring element. Furthermore, we explored the role of two important elements: seniors' cognitive age, and the influence of their subjective well-being on their adoption behavior. Results demonstrated that cognitive age does not significantly impact use intention by itself; nonetheless, subjective well-being moderates its effect. This result revealed an interesting finding, which is that the influence of cognitive age on seniors' use intention depends on seniors' level of subjective well-being. When seniors' subjective well-being is low, surprisingly, cognitive age increases seniors' intention to use the device. These findings provide interesting implications for practice and future research.

Design Process and Utilization of a Novel Clinical Decision Support System for Neuropathic Pain in Primary Care: Mixed Methods Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: Computerized clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have emerged as an approach to improve compliance of clinicians with clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). Research utilizing CDSS has primarily been conducted in clinical contexts with clear diagnostic criteria such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In contrast, research on CDSS for pain management and more specifically neuropathic pain has been limited. A CDSS for neuropathic pain has the potential to enhance patient care as the challenge of diagnosing and treating neuropathic pain often leads to tension in clinician-patient relationships. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to design and evaluate a CDSS aimed at improving the adherence of interprofessional primary care clinicians to CPG for managing neuropathic pain. METHODS: Recommendations from the Canadian CPGs informed the decision pathways. The development of the CDSS format and function involved participation of multiple stakeholders and end users in needs assessment and usability testing. Clinicians, including family medicine physicians, residents, and nurse practitioners, in three academic teaching clinics were trained in the use of the CDSS. Evaluation over one year included the measurement of utilization of the CDSS; change in reported awareness, agreement, and adoption of CPG recommendations; and change in the observed adherence to CPG recommendations. RESULTS: The usability testing of the CDSS was highly successful in the prototype environment. Deployment in the clinical setting was partially complete by the time of the study, with some limitations in the planned functionality. The study population had a high level of awareness, agreement, and adoption of guideline recommendations before implementation of CDSS. Nevertheless, there was a small and statistically significant improvement in the mean awareness and adoption scores over the year of observation (P=.01 for mean awareness scores at 6 and 12 months compared with baseline, for mean adoption scores at 6 months compared with baseline, and for mean adoption scores at 12 months). Documenting significant findings related to diagnosis of neuropathic pain increased significantly. Clinicians accessed CPG information more frequently than they utilized data entry functions. Nurse practitioners and first year family medicine trainees had higher utilization than physicians. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a small increase in the adherence to CPG recommendations for managing neuropathic pain. Clinicians utilized the CDSS more as a source of knowledge and as a training tool than as an ongoing dynamic decision support.