Social contagion and technology adoption: a study in healthcare professionals.

Abstract

This study applies social network analysis approach to studying technology adoption behavior by healthcare professionals. The empirical study was conducted in an ambulatory, primary care clinic where users use a clinical decision support system to treat patients. Strong evidence of social contagion is found in the structural equivalence of friendship network, particularly within the segment between residents and their attending physicians. None of the direct communication networks is found to have significant impact on usage.