Do Women Make Better Doctors?

WayOutWestMom
Wed, 15 Aug 2018 18:35:13 +0000

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/well/doctors-male-female-women-men-heart.html

The study, of more than 580,000 heart patients admitted over two decades to emergency rooms in Florida, found that mortality rates for both women and men were lower when the treating physician was female. And women who were treated by male doctors were the least likely to survive.

This new study reinforces similar findings of a Harvard study in 2016 which found Medicare patients treated by female physicians were less likely to die or to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days.

Other studies have found meaningful differences in how men & women practice medicine. Women physicians listen to patients 4-6x longer without interrupting than male physicians and spend an average of 2+ minutes (or 10%) longer with a patient during each office visit.