This data set was prepared by Ron Burt. He dug out the 1966 data collected by Coleman, Katz and Menzel on medical innovation. They had collected data from physicians in four towns in Illinois, Peoria, Bloomington, Quincy and Galesburg.
They were concerned with the impact of network ties on the physicians' adoprion of a new drug, tetracycline. Three sociometric matrices were generated. One was based on the replies to a question, "When you need information or advice about questions of therapy where do you usually turn?" A second stemmed from the question "And who are the three or four physicians with whom you most often find yourself discussing cases or therapy in the course of an ordinary week -- last week for instance?" And the third was simply "Would you tell me the first names of your three friends whom you see most often socially?"
In addition, records of prescriptions were reviewed and a great many other questions were asked. In the ATTRIBUTES data I have included 13 items: city of practice, recorded date of tetracycline adoption date, years in practice, meetings attended, journal subscriptions, free time activities, discussions, club memberships, friends, time in the community, patient load, physical proximity to other physicians and medical specialty.
physiciansigraph object
The codes are: City: 1 Peoria, 2 Bloomington, 3 Quincy, 4 Galesburg
Adoption Date: 1 November, 1953 2 December, 1953 3 January, 1954 4 February, 1954 5 March, 1954 6 April, 1954 7 May, 1954 8 June, 1954 9 July, 1954 10 August, 1954 11 September, 1954 12 October, 1954 13 November, 1954 14 December, 1954 15 December/January, 1954/1955 16 January/February, 1955 17 February, 1955 18 no prescriptions found 98 no prescription data obtainedYear started in the profession 1 1919 or before 2 1920-1929 3 1930-1934 4 1935-1939 5 1940-1944 6 1945 or later 9 no answer
Have you attended any national, regional or state conventions of professional societies during the last 12 months? (if yes) Which ones? 0 none 1 only general meetings 2 specialty meetings 9 no answer
Which medical journals do you receive regularly? 1 two 2 three 3 four 4 five 5 six 6 seven 7 eight 8 nine or more 9 no answer
With whom do you actually spend more of your free time -- doctors or non-doctors? 1 non-doctors 2 about evenly split between them 3 doctors 9 mssing; no answer, don't know
When you are with other doctors socially, do you like to talk about medical matter? 1 no 2 yes 3 don't care 9 missing; no answer, don't know
Do you belong to any club or hobby composed mostly of doctors? 0 no 1 yes 9 no answer
Would you tell me who are your three friends whom you see most often socially? What is (their) occupation? 1 none are doctors 2 one is a doctor 3 two are doctors 4 three are doctors 9 no answer
How long have you been practicing in this community? 1 a year or less 2 more than a year, up to two years 3 more than two years, up to five years 4 more than five years, up to ten years 5 more than ten years, up to twenty years 6 more than twenty years 9 no answer
About how many office visits would you say you have during the average week at this time of year? 1 25 or less 2 26-50 3 51-75 4 76-100 5 101-150 6 151 or more 9 missing; no answer, don't know
Are there other physicians in this building? (if yes) Other physicians in same office or with same waiting room? 1 none in building 2 some in building, but none share his office or waiting room 3 some in building sharing his office or waiting room 4 some in building perhaps sharing his office or waiting room 9 no answer
Do you specialize in any particular field of medicine? (if yes) What is it? 1 GP, general practitioner 2 internist 3 pediatrician 4 other specialty 9 no answer
Coleman, J. S. Introduction to Mathermatical Sociology. New York: Free Press, pp.450-451.