A new study published in JAMA Internal (the Journal of the American Medical Association) has proven statistically what many of us have always suspected: You’re more likely to die in a hospital under the care of a male doctor than a woman. Hoo boy.
Previous studies have suggested that women doctors are more likely to consistently follow established medical procedures; other research has shown that women doctors are more likely to provide preventative care than male ones, and that they are more likely to prescribe medication effectively. This new study suggests, probably more significantly, that patients are also highly less likely to die or be readmitted to the hospital in a short period under the care of women doctors than if the providers are men.
The study reviewed the records of more than 1.5 million Medicare patients over the course of three years and found that regardless of the severity of the condition or the condition the patient was suffering from, the difference persisted: Patients were significantly less likely to die under the care of a woman doctor. Patients were found to have a lower relative risk of about 4 percent of dying if their doctor was a woman than if he was a man, and a lower relative risk of readmittance of 5 percent.
The evidence that women and men practice medicine differently (and really, that women practice it better) is fairly well-documented, but this is the first study of its kind to point out that, hey, about 30,000 less people would have died in the US had they been under the care of a woman doctor. The study does not establish why women are better doctors, though the previously stated findings — that they follow procedure better, for instance — might begin to explain the differences.
What do we take away from this? That men are bad? That they shouldn’t be allowed to practice medicine? Let’s start by encouraging more women to practice medicine (only about one-third of doctors in the US are women) and paying them better (women doctors make about 8 percent less than their male counterparts, according to a recent JAMA study).
