Does the gender of your doctor matter? | BBC Global
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
- A study conducted by researchers in Japan and the US suggests that mortality rates among female patients are lower in the care of female physicians.
Why might that be? And how can we use this information to save lives?
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I looked up the research article, and unfortunately it sits behind a paywall, so I couldn't critique it. The most obvious problem with it from the abstract was that it only considered 30-day mortality and readmission. Anyone who has ever had chronic or misdiagnosed medical conditions will know that a 30-day survey will miss a lot of issues. For example, many people are ignored when they report early symptoms, and then they get sent home to wait for problems to reoccur. It can sometimes take more than a month to worsen to more advanced stages.
I also found it suspicious that most of the patients had male doctors (~71%). According to 2021 data from the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), only 58% of Family Medicine/General Practice doctors are male, and their numbers are declining steadily as older doctors retire. It made me wonder if there was some selection bias involved or if they might have omitted some of the data. I also wonder if they were comparing older male doctors to younger (fresh out of school) female doctors, in which case, the quality of education would have been a significant factor, not gender.
As for the financial support, the study was funded by the Annenberg Foundation, which gives money to social justice work. That's like giving a free pass to research on food safety when it's funded by the major food corporations. The BBC should have put more effort into critiquing this research instead of giving it an uncritical endorsement. But then again, the Annenberg Foundation also helps fund PBS and other allied (and biased) news agencies, so I'm not surprised. In fact, I wonder if the Annenberg Foundation hand-fed their research project to the BBC and the associated press as a form of cheap advertising.
FYI, I'm a liberal who advocates gender and racial equality. I do not, however, endorse the radical turn within the mainstream in recent years. Misandry is not compatible with gender equality, and social justice should not be seen as revenge. We need critical and balanced reporting, not ideological propaganda from the left or right.
@1:40 "Almost half of US medical students are women" -- This is deceptively misleading. According to the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), 55% of medical students are women (for the school year 2023 - 2024). The numbers have increased year after year since 2015, when the statistics were reversed. Today, the number of male medical students is plummeting, now down to 45%. The halfway mark was celebrated by the AAMC back in 2019, yet as women continue to overtake men, the press continues to call for more and more female medical students. Why?
At this point, we should be trying to keep the scales from tipping too far to one side, especially since male college enrollment continues to fall. As of 2021, only 40% of college students in the U.S. were men.
Yes, it hugely matters in Asia and probably in rest of the world, too!
Its really ridiculous we still talking about this. People really need to grow up
what do you mean? this is a new study?
Still we are doing men women. I mean how about we just see them as professional@@llauram3650
This affects men, too. I've had several female doctors for the last 10 years, and the quality of my care has significantly declined with each of them. All of them have been too squeamish to touch me or perform routine examines for male health issues, often visibly grimacing when my conditions necessitate the test. Unfortunately, my hospital no longer employs male doctors, so I can't ask for a new physician. And the last time I did ask for a male physician, all the female receptionists gave me an evil look, as if I were somehow promoting patriarchy.
We need a balanced discussion of gender issues in the news, and this is not it. A senior editor for NPR recently revealed that his news organization deliberately dictates the news, telling people how to think on social issues at the behest of special interest groups that oversee their editing and news selection process. Within a week, other news organizations like PBS, CNN, and the BBC all came out with ads trying to convince people that they were different and didn't tell people what to think. That's BS.
Ditch the special interest groups, restore balance to the news, and kick misandrous, misogynous, and racist writers and editors to the curb.
Why might that be? Maybe because of female intuition and the strong bonds women form with people - men can be a bit more disconnected at times. And how can we use this information to save lives? Well nurtured women are like a flashlight in the dark, I think ensuring a basic standard of living will give more people opportunities to specialize in what they're good at...more female doctors and fewer sick people.