Objective: The aim of the study is to assess the transfer from one hospital to another in patients with myocardial infarction in the Provence Alpes CBte d'Azur (PACA).
Methods: To apply a methodology initially used in sociology "social network analysis" which allow us to describe and model the relational structure of a whole of actors, represented in this work by the establishments of care. Flows between the actors are represented by the transfers of patients. This approach is innovating in the analysis of the medical system.
Results: - A total of 2049 patients were admitted in 74 hospitals. The average age is 68.9 years. The density of the hospital network is 0.12. The number of click is 51. Multivariate analysis showed that the following factors were associated with decreased mortality: prestige, age < 65 years, angioplasty alone or thrombolysis associated to angioplasty.
Conclusion: Social Network Analysis offers a synthetic sight of the relational systems in the health system. It constitutes an open field of search in Public health, and can also be applied to the evaluation of the networks.