Association Between Physicians' Experiences With Members of Their Social Network and Efforts to Reduce Breast Cancer Screening

Physician recommendations strongly influence women's decisions to receive breast cancer screening, but current evidence suggests physician adherence to evolving guidelines that recommend less screening is suboptimal. Clinical encounters and experiences with friends, colleagues, and family members who have been diagnosed with breast cancer may affect physician screening recommendations. These personal and professional experiences may provide physicians with anecdotal information about breast cancer screening fundamentally different from — and potentially at odds with — scientific evidence that relies on estimates of mortality reduction.