Do Women Make Better Doctors Than Men?

Do you prefer to be treated by a doctor? Then you should rethink from now on. Because: As a study shows, women are the better doctors!

Women and men practice differently

It is known that women and men practice medicine in different ways. For example, women are said to give better advice to their patients and follow clinical guidelines more strictly than men. Until now, however, it has not been clear what effect this behaviour has on patients’ health. A team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health has now looked into this question in a study published in Jama Internal Medicine.

Higher mortality rate among doctors

The study evaluated data from 1.5 million US patients (65 years and older) over a period of four years. The result: the patients treated by women had a lower probability of dying within a period of 30 days and had to be admitted to hospital less often. Overall, the probability of dying was 0.43 percentage points lower than for patients treated by doctors. This may sound like little, but in terms of numbers it is a lot: a total of 32,000 fewer deaths per year!

How is that possible?

The research team could not clearly prove which factors caused this effect. It is possible that the behaviour of the doctor, the patient or the interaction between doctor and patient plays a major role. “It could be something that the patient does. It could be the patient’s reaction to the doctor. It’s hard to say, it’s probably many factors,” said Videet Arora, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

Either way, the study clearly shows that women do at least as good a job as their male colleagues. It’s just a pity that they still earn less – in this country they earn on average 25 percent less salary. Perhaps the study offers a little more incentive for employers to compensate. Because let’s face it: gender-related salaries are so 1990.