Another Reason We Need More Female Doctors: Their Patients Live Longer

Here's yet another reason we need more female doctors in this country: According to a new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association—Internal Medicine, Medicare patients ages 65 and older are less likely to die or be readmitted to the hospital when they're treated by female doctors than when they're treated by male doctors.

The researchers found that female and male doctors actually approach practicing medicine differently. And they estimated that if male physicians practiced more like their women counterparts, we'd save an estimated 32,000 lives each year among Medicare patients.

While the authors aren't sure what it is about the way female doctors practice medicine that accounts for this difference, they did point out what previous research has shown us about the differences in bedside manners: Women physicians are more likely to adhere to clinical guidelines and evidence-based practices and are more likely to provide preventive care and communicate in a more patient-centric way. They also provide more counseling to their patients than male doctors do.

That doesn't mean you have to run out and get a female doctor this second in order to have a nice long life, but it does show that we, as women, bring singular skills to our chosen careers. The biggest takeaway, though, is that we really should work harder to remedy the lack of representation of female doctors in positions of leadership and prestige.


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