Application of social network analysis to the study of post-injury rehabilitation and health service utilisation

EXTENDED ABSTRACT: Increasingly used in medical domains such as epidemiology to understand and describe the topology of illness and disease pathways, Social Network Analysis (SNA) has not been used in the context of post-crash rehabilitation and care. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of using SNA to study post-crash treatment pathways among a large group of injured persons compensated and treated under the Victorian Transport Accident Commission scheme. We demonstrate that, with minor conceptual adaptation, SNA can provide new insights for rehabilitation researchers and injury compensation scheme managers attempting to effectively understand and predict individual and population-level patterns of recovery.