It's been said that you have to
"network to increase your net worth." There is some truth to
that. One must not only consider increasing the number of mutual (work)
relationships one has, but also ensure that strong connections are
maintained. In statistics, a rigorous method of analyzing the way that
people, organizations, and other entities connect and interact with each other
is known as social
network analysis.
This is in contrast to classic
statistics in which observations are made on the attributes (e.g. points scored
per game) but instead on how each observation connects interacts with other
observations. This field is a relatively recent development from graph
theory and network analysis, but has already been used in studying how to
increase the effectiveness of physician networks in lowering health care costs,
obesity in heart studies, health referral region networks, etc. A map is a very
useful aid in studying networks. A simple example is shown below:
The circles are referred to
as "nodes" or "actors". These could represent
individual physicians or a whole network of physicians for example. The
links between the nodes are commonly known as "edges." Edges
show the direction or the source of interaction between two actors. An example
of an edge could be the travel of information about a new treatment technique
from one physician to another in dealing with breast cancer patients. This is a basic example but there are plenty
of ways (statistics and other visualization techniques) to analyze networks.
This field has a lot of interesting
applications. It’s being used in health
policy to analyze health referral regions (study that answers questions of what
percentage of patients does one physician refer to another physician). It’s been used by law enforcement agencies to
analyze terrorist
networks and identify key players in crime.
It’s also used by Facebook and LinkedIn to suggest (sometimes
unwillingly) people you may know based on who you or your Facebook friends are
connected to.
If you would like to know any more
information or would like for me to clarify something(s) please feel free to
contact me.
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