# Dissecting Medical Referral Mechanisms in Health Services: Role of Physician Professional Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.02387 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02387/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 55 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Dec 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [A Unified Approach to Interpreting Model Predictions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.07874/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [node2vec: Scalable Feature Learning for Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.00653/) (2016)
- [GRAM: Graph-based Attention Model for Healthcare Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07012/) (2016)
- [Graph Embedding on Biomedical Networks: Methods, Applications, and Evaluations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05017/) (2019)
- [Heterogeneous Similarity Graph Neural Network on Electronic Health Records](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.06800/) (2021)
- [Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Networks for Medical Event Detection in Electronic Health Records](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.07953/) (2016)
- [Deep Contextual Clinical Prediction with Reverse Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.05611/) (2020)
- [Attributed Network Embedding via Subspace Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.04095/) (2019)
- [Drug repurposing for COVID-19 using graph neural network and harmonizing multiple evidence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.10931/) (2020)
- [A Hybrid Recommender System for Patient-Doctor Matchmaking in Primary Care](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.03265/) (2018)
- [Analysis of the U.S. Patient Referral Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.03245/) (2017)
- [Clinical Recommender System: Predicting Medical Specialty Diagnostic Choices with Neural Network Ensembles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.12161/) (2020)
- [A Social Network Analysis Framework for Modeling Health Insurance Claims Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.07116/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [C-PATH: Conversational Patient Assistance and Triage in Healthcare System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06737/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Medical referrals between primary care physicians (PC) and specialist care (SC) physicians profoundly impact patient care regarding quality, satisfaction, and cost. This paper investigates the influence of professional networks among medical doctors on referring patients from PC to SC. Using five-year consultation data from a Portuguese private health provider, we conducted exploratory data analysis and constructed both professional and referral networks among physicians. We then apply Graph Neural Network (GNN) models to learn latent representations of the referral network. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that doctors' professional social connections can predict medical referrals, potentially enhancing collaboration within organizations and improving healthcare services. This research contributes to dissecting the underlying mechanisms in primary-specialty referrals, thereby providing valuable insights for enhancing patient care and effective healthcare management.