The knowledge–practice gap remains a challenge in many fields. Health research has shown that professional networks influence various aspects of patient care, including diffusion of innovative practices. In the current study, we examined the potential utility of professional networks to spread the use of violence-risk-assessment tools in forensic psychiatric settings. A total of 6,664 reports, written by 708 clinicians, were used to examine the effect of clinicians’ use of risk-assessment tools on subsequent reports by other clinicians with whom they share patients. Results show that professional networks serve as an important channel for the spread of assessment practices. Simulation of a continuing education program showed that targeting more influential clinicians in the network could be 3 times more efficient at disseminating best practices than randomly training clinicians. Decision-makers may consider using professional networks to identify and train influential clinicians to maximize diffusion of the use of risk-assessment instruments.

知识与实践之间的差距仍然是许多领域的挑战。健康研究表明，专业网络会影响患者护理的各个方面，包括创新做法的传播。在当前的研究中，我们研究了专业网络在法医精神病学环境中传播暴力风险评估工具的潜在用途。由708位临床医生撰写的总计6,664份报告被用于检查临床医生使用风险评估工具对与他们共享患者的其他临床医生随后的报告的影响。结果表明，专业网络是传播评估实践的重要渠道。对继续教育计划的仿真显示，针对网络中更具影响力的临床医生，传播最佳实践的效率比随机培训临床医生的效率高3倍。决策者可以考虑使用专业网络来识别和培训有影响力的临床医生，以最大程度地分散风险评估工具的使用。