Improving Network Science in Health Services Research

Excerpt

In the past 20 years, the discipline of network science has grown at a breathtaking pace. Its influence has touched nearly every domain of scientific inquiry, including genetics, neuroscience, computer science, economics, and epidemiology, to name just a few.¹ The appeal of network science comes from a universal framework of tools to define nearly any complex system as a combination of “nodes” (a single point) and “edges” (a connection between two points). Studying networks has never been more accessible due to the increasing availability of free courses and textbooks, faster and cheaper computers, sophisticated visualization techniques, and powerful open source software. In 2019, it could be argued that every social scientist should have at least some familiarity with network methods. …