The impact of health information exchanges on physicians’ centrality in the referral network

The objective of this study is to identify the value that Health Information Exchanges (HIE) implemented in the U.S. healthcare system brings for physicians in referral processes. Mainly, we argue that a primary care physician who has adopted HIE is connected with more specialists in the referral network than another physician who has not adopted HIE. This enables her to make a better decision in a referral process with regards to selecting an appropriate specialist. Second, we argue that HIE brings a competitive advantage for specialists; a specialist who has adopted HIE becomes more popular in the referral network than other specialists. We further argue that a primary care physician who has adopted HIE tends to refer to the specialists who have also adopted HIE. This study provides an insight on the benefits of HIE to physicians in referral processes which in turn encourage more physicians to adopt it.