Organizational and Social Determinants of Knowledge-sharing Networks among Primary Care Physicians

Around the world, health reforms are increasingly fostering collaboration and integration among primary care physicians with the aim of facilitating knowledge sharing and evidence-informed decision making. Although extant research on this topic is abundant, the evidence and results regarding social and organizational factors affecting the formation of knowledge-sharing networks in this setting are inconclusive. This paper builds on and advances this stream of literature in two ways. First, it explores social and organizational determinants of knowledge networks in different primary care organizations. In this regard, it enhances our understanding of factors affecting the formation of knowledge-sharing ties. Second, it studies inter-physician knowledge networks in several clinical areas (asthma, gastrointestinal problems, and urinary problems), thereby enabling us to assess the similarity of knowledge networks across clinical areas. The data were collected from two local health authorities (LHAs) in the It...