Table 1 Definition of network metrics in the context of our physician network

Degree

Number of edges directly connecting to other physicians

Betweeness centrality

The extent to which a physician lies on the shortest paths between other pairs of physicians in the network

Network density

The proportion of directly connected pairs of physicians present in the network out of all possible connections

First degree neighbors

The subgroup of physicians immediately connected to a particular physician of interest

Shannon diversity

The extent to which a physician is billing across different hospitals