Patients Treated By Female Doctors More Likely To Survive, Claims Study

A new study says patients are less likely to die or be readmitted when treated by a female doctor. According to the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, patients with female doctors have lower rates of mortality and remission than patients treated by male doctors.

The study included over 776,000 participants including 458,100 female patients and more than 318,800 male patients who were hospitalised with medical conditions from 2016 to 2019. All were covered by Medicare. 

The study concluded that "patients have lower mortality and readmission rates when treated by female physicians." The mortality rate for female patients when they were treated by a female doctor was 8.15% compared with 8.38% when treated by a male physician. Meanwhile, the mortality rate was 10.15% for men when treated by a female doctor compared to 10.23% when treated by a male.

The percentage difference for women is considered "clinically meaningful," the researchers noted.

“It is important to note that female physicians provide high-quality care, and therefore, having more female physicians benefits patients from a societal point-of-view,” said investigator Yusuke Tsugawa in a press release.

''Further research on the underlying mechanisms linking physician gender with patient outcomes, and why the benefit of receiving the treatment from female physicians is larger for female patients, has the potential to improve patient outcomes across the board,'' he added.

Experts said that women doctors spend more time talking to their patients, looking at their records and performing procedures. Female physicians probably also have better communication skills and a more patient-centred approach when it comes to female patients. Being treated by a female physician could also help alleviate the embarrassment, discomfort and social and cultural taboos that can arise for female patients during sensitive examinations, the researchers said.

''We know that there are differences in care delivery patterns by male versus female physicians across fields of medicine. Female physicians spend more time with patients and spend more time engaging in shared medical decision-making and partnership discussions than male counterparts,'' Dr Lisa Rotenstein, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor and medical director at the University of California San Francisco, told Medical News Today.

''It is not surprising to me to see this for several reasons. First, from data going back decades now, we know that women and men practice medicine differently with particular differences in communication styles and guideline adherence. It's not surprising to me to see these differences translate to patients' outcomes. Second, both more widely in society and certainly in medicine, women are held to arguably a higher standard than men. This is an exaggerated phenomenon in surgery and may explain some of the differences we've seen there,'' Dr. Christopher Wallis, an assistant professor in the division of urology at the University of Toronto said. 

The new research is part of a growing field of study examining why women and minorities tend to receive worse medical care than men and white patients. According to a study published in the JAMA Internal Medicine in January 2024, "women and minority patients are up to 30% more likely to be misdiagnosed than white men," NBC News reported. 

A separate study from 2002 found that female doctors spent 23 minutes on average with a patient, compared to 21 minutes for male doctors.