If you are interested in longevity, seeking a female doctor should be on your doctors' list, according to scientists.
Patients under a female doctor have lower mortality rates and remission ratios than patients treated by doctors of male sex in the study put in Annals of Internal Medicine. Female physicians comprise merely 37 percent of medical professionals in the US.
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Together with his colleagues Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, an associate professor-in-residence medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Tsugawa decided to examine the Medicare claims submitted during 2016-2019.
In some cases, female patients who were taking care by a female doctor had a mortality rate of 8.15% while those who were taken care by a male doctor had a mortality rate of 8.38%. The figure in the survival rate was 10.15% for men when cared for by a female physician as compared to 10.23% in the hands of a male doctor. The research consisted of 485,100 women as its sample and 318,800 men as the other sample, the Medical News Today reported.
“The following conclusion is that female checking up and male physicians do not differ markedly however these differences have been found to significantly impact the health outcomes of the patients,” added Tsugawa who authored the study.
In his words, “A more extensive study of the components that determine the positive impact of gender disparity among physicians on patient outcome on those two different dimensions and its contribution to women benefiting even more from female physicians merits future investigation for possible improvement of the patient outcomes in general”.
Why are women more efficient doctors than men?
Prof. Christopher Wallis from the division of urology department at the University of Toronto and an assistant professor told Medical News Today that the findings did not shock him and was also related to previous studies where gender of the health care providers and health outcomes are concerned. Despite the absence of being a part of this recent research, he examined the gender disparity and the poorer postoperative outcomes faced by women surgeons.
Physicists in all fields have shown that multiple clinical trials have witnessed more positive outcomes (mortality, readmission or any other outcomes) in patients treated by women physicians. These data were replicated in recent clinical trials.
‘It is not something special to me to see this occur either for a variety of reasons’ In the beginning, as evidence from decades ago indicates, we know for sure that a man and woman can differently practice medicine and in that difference they can show with their communication styles and with their adherence to the guidelines. The different approach or style of doctors is not difficult to take into account that they show up in patient's outcomes. First, women are not only more exposed to sexism but for sure in medical roles as elsewhere they have much more uneven standards than men. This is an increased talent shortage in the surgical area and may account for many of the discrepancies in this country, said Wallis.
And in addition to being held to a higher standard than their male colleagues and having effective communication style, female doctors spend more time addressing their patients question, listening to their records and performing certain procedures.
“Findings from the outpatient setting reveal that female physicians spend more time on the electronic health record than their male colleagues and engage in superior quality care,” the research co-author, Dr. Lisa Rotenstein, Assistant Professor and Director of the University Clinical Relations at the University of California, said to Medical News Today.
"Following the same trend, female doctors are known to spend more time on operations and have fewer rates of post-operative readmissions. Hence, the training and incentive should be designed in a way that makes all the physicians to replicate the kind of care provided by female doctors.” she continued.
Medical Experts suggested male physicians should observe female doctors in the vicinity and try to adopt their methods.
“I wish male physicians were to look at these data with a mind to analyzing their own practices also. Doctors often disregard data concerning their mistakes while certain individuals would take the blames for them. However, that is not in favor of the patients.” Dr. Arghavan Salles who is a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Stanford University made this statement to the Medical News Today.