Graham Knapp
Women are less likely to die if their hospital doctor is a woman. This will not surprise @mekkaokereke
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-3163
May 19, 2024 at 3:32pmWeb
Show threadtroy_s May 19, 2024

@graham_knapp You missed the kicker?

> Both female and male patients had a lower patient mortality when treated by female physicians

Show threadtrusty falxter 🧠May 19, 2024
@troy_s
That would have been my question here. Do female doctors have a better understanding of women's physiology or are women just better doctors? Apparently the letter.
@graham_knapp
Show threadGraham KnappMay 19, 2024
@flxtr @troy_s both may be true !
"patients have lower mortality and readmission rates when treated by female physicians, and the benefit of receiving treatments from female physicians is larger for female patients than for male patients."
Show threadtrusty falxter 🧠May 19, 2024

@graham_knapp
Yes. It may also be true, that both outcomes, that men are worse doctors and men profit less, when treated by female doctors have the same cause: communication skills. Patients profit from the doctor's and their own communication skills.

Another possibility: Because men were seen more or less as standard model for human physiology for a long time, male physiology might me more common knowledge than female. So men would profit less from a doctor with superior knowledge.
@troy_s

Show threadPaul ChurchMay 19, 2024
@graham_knapp @mekkaokereke the sample size where the hospital doctor was a bear was insufficient to draw conclusions
Show threadJayMay 19, 2024
@paulchurch @graham_knapp @mekkaokereke Hey, at least the bear knows that when a woman is doubled over in agony, that means she’s easy prey after her appendix bursts and not just experiencing “normal period pains”.
Show threadAllanMay 19, 2024
@graham_knapp @mekkaokereke
Show threadthe Amygdalai LamaMay 19, 2024
@graham_knapp @mekkaokereke
just guessing that the headline is clickbait-divisive, and that really, men have a better chance with a lady doctor too?
.
That the women doctors aren't treating their patients with preference, that they are simply more attentive, etc., generally?
.
In other words, male doctors probably kill more men than women doctors do too? Does it say any of this? ❤️
Show threadGraham KnappMay 19, 2024
@punishmenthurts "patients have lower mortality and readmission rates when treated by female physicians, and the benefit of receiving treatments from female physicians is larger for female patients than for male patients." It doesn't seem to go into causes but other papers suggest that female doctors are better communicators and better communication leads to better outcomes.
Show threadthe Amygdalai LamaMay 19, 2024
@graham_knapp
ah, with maybe a discrepancy for the first hand knowledge thing.
OK, thanks, makes sense.
.
I'm a little paranoid, but that sounds OK.
Show threadAlessia ViscontiMay 19, 2024

@graham_knapp @mekkaokereke This is the second paper that pops up in my timeline today showing that women are more competent than men.

It makes you wonder...

(The first one was: https://floss.social/@Bo/112466304765070334)

Boris VAN HOYTEMA (@[email protected])

Study on gender bias in Pull Request acceptance: "Surprisingly, our results show that women's contributions tend to be accepted more often than men's. However, when a woman's gender is identifiable, they are rejected more often. Our results suggest that although women on GitHub may be more competent overall, bias against them exists nonetheless." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308716997_Gender_bias_in_open_source_Pull_request_acceptance_of_women_versus_men

FLOSS.social
Show threadGraham KnappMay 19, 2024
@alesssia @mekkaokereke with that paper I fear that survivorship bias plays a part - I think twice as many women drop out of tech, possibly leaving an excess of exceptionally good ones ..? The good news is that the difference largely disappears once women become known in the project. As with many of our biases it comes out most strongly in low-confidence situations (reading one cv out of many, reviewing a first-time PR, ...)
Show threadAlessia ViscontiMay 23, 2024

@graham_knapp @mekkaokereke I don't have any literature at hand supporting this, but I think that in most STEM professions(*) (including medicine) there is a survivor bias, or a "join the club" bias, whatever this is actually called :), which is depressing and disappointing.

Depressing and disappointing is also the fact that in low-confidence situations, gender will be a strong factor

(*) this could be true also for other disciplines, I'm not just familiar with them

Show threadUsagiMay 19, 2024
@graham_knapp @mekkaokereke That's pretty sad, actually. Not sure if it points to incompetence or malice ​​
Show threadGraham KnappMay 19, 2024
@usagi @mekkaokereke I am sure that we find it very easy to make excuses for incompetence in white guys in tech, medicine, etc so the bad ones stay around but there is at least one reference pointing to better communication skills in female doctors