Edited by Michael Roach, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and accepted by Editorial Board Member Mary C. Waters July 3, 2018 (received for review January 3, 2018)
A large body of medical research suggests that women are less likely than men to survive traumatic health episodes like acute myocardial infarctions. In this work, we posit that these difficulties may be partially explained, or exacerbated, by the gender match between the patient and the physician. Findings suggest that gender concordance increases a patient’s probability of survival and that the effect is driven by increased mortality when male physicians treat female patients. Empirical extensions indicate that mortality rates decrease when male physicians practice with more female colleagues or have treated more female patients in the past.
We examine patient gender disparities in survival rates following acute myocardial infarctions (i.e., heart attacks) based on the gender of the treating physician. Using a census of heart attack patients admitted to Florida hospitals between 1991 and 2010, we find higher mortality among female patients who are treated by male physicians. Male patients and female patients experience similar outcomes when treated by female physicians, suggesting that unique challenges arise when male physicians treat female patients. We further find that male physicians with more exposure to female patients and female physicians have more success treating female patients.
Author contributions: B.N.G., S.C., and L.H. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. M.R. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1800097115/-/DCSupplemental.
Published under the PNAS license.
