Study Finds That Women Heart Attack Victims Are More Likely to Survive If Treated by a Woman Doctor

A new study by researchers at the business schools of the University of Minnesota, Washington University in St. Louis, and Harvard University, finds that female heart attacks patients who are treated in the emergency room  by women physicians are more likely to survive. The study also found that male physicians who have a large number of female colleagues or who have treated a large number of female heart attack patients have better success rates with female heart attack patients.

The data was taken from 581,797 heart attack patients admitted to hospital emergency rooms in Florida between 1991 and 2010. Researchers found that women patients treated by male physicians were the least likely to survive.

The authors state that one reason for the lower survival rate for women patients with male physicians may be related to communication. Women may be more likely to discuss their symptoms and concerns with a female doctor than they would be with a man.

The full study, “Patient–Physician Gender Concordance and Increased Mortality Among Female Heart Attack Patients,” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It may be accessed here.