Treatment from a female doctor lowers death rates, study finds

Researchers have long surmised that men and women approach their work as doctors differently. Now there is data to show some of the effects that the different genders can have when providing healthcare. Overall, there were lower mortality rates and hospital readmissions for patients who had women as their doctors in the United States. The difference was even more notable for female patients. Doctor Yusuke Sagawa is the lead author on the study. If we put this into context, for for example, for mortality for every 420 hospitalizations. One fuel death will occur when female physicians provide care, as opposed to when male physicians take patients. And given that more than 4 million hospitalizations for medical condition happen every year in the US, this difference is pretty big if you take it into account at the population level. More research is needed to fully understand why this is happening, but doctor Sagawa says other studies have shown female physicians, on average, are more likely to abide by clinical guidelines and spend more time listening to patients. The fact that some symptoms can have subtle differences in how they present in women could be another contributing factor. And while this study is based on US numbers, researchers say it is likely there is a similar pattern happening in Canada. Catherine Ward, Global News, Toronto.