BMJ  2008;336:731-732 (5 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39526.359630.BE

Editorials

Effects of gender on performance in medicine

Men may have higher output than women, but this is possibly offset by litigation and disciplinary action

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A recent study assessed the workloads of 7236 male consultants and 1048 female consultants in the 10 most common specialties using data from the hospital episode statistics for England 2004-5.¹ It found that, on average, male consultants completed 160 more episodes of care each year than their female colleagues. More women graduate from medicine than men, and the authors suggest that their finding could have financial implications beyond those of maternity leave. The authors point out possible flaws in the study, however, such as the accuracy and validity of the underlying hospital data. For example, if consultants work in teams, coders might allocate work to the most senior consultant in the team, who is more likely to be a man. Also, activities were limited to inpatient and outpatient settings, so other activities such as teaching and administration would have been ignored. More importantly, the findings may reflect the way that . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ London Deanery, London WC1B 5DN

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