The author appears to claim that female Doctors might achieve better
patient outcomes than do male Doctors. The scope of the meta-analysis (1)
referenced in support of this claim is limited to the primary care
setting.
Further, it is important to distinguish measured patient outcomes
from actual patient outcome since the two may not be the same.
The complexity of the medical interaction makes it difficult to
capture the true, overall, outcome for the patient through the measurement
of patient outcomes. For this reason the validity of applying such
measurments to compare the overall ability of male and female Doctors is
questionable.
1. Roter DL, Hall JA, Aoki Y. Physician gender effects in medical
communication: a meta-analytic review. JAMA 2002;288:756-64.[Abstract/Free
Full Text]
Competing interests:
I am a male final year Medical student
Competing interests:
No competing interests
04 April 2008
Carl J Reynolds
Medical Student
Royal Free and University College Medical School, WC1E 6BT
Rapid Response:
Gender and ability to practice medicine
The author appears to claim that female Doctors might achieve better patient outcomes than do male Doctors. The scope of the meta-analysis (1) referenced in support of this claim is limited to the primary care setting.
Further, it is important to distinguish measured patient outcomes from actual patient outcome since the two may not be the same.
The complexity of the medical interaction makes it difficult to capture the true, overall, outcome for the patient through the measurement of patient outcomes. For this reason the validity of applying such measurments to compare the overall ability of male and female Doctors is questionable.
1. Roter DL, Hall JA, Aoki Y. Physician gender effects in medical communication: a meta-analytic review. JAMA 2002;288:756-64.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Competing interests: I am a male final year Medical student
Competing interests: No competing interests