Editorial
How Physician Gender Shapes the Communication and Evaluation of Medical Care

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Patient Preferences

Despite historical gender bias against female physicians,2 most studies reveal only a weak preference for physicians of the same sex when the presenting complaint is not gender specific.2, 3, 4, 5 While female patients choose a female physician more often than does a male patient, both male and female patients overwhelmingly choose male physicians.6 A preference for a same-sex physician, however, becomes much stronger when patients are seeking help for intimate health problems, including

Communication Dynamics

Communication studies in primary care have demonstrated that male and female physicians conduct their medical visits somewhat differently. Female physicians have longer visits and engage in more partnership building, emotionally focused talk, positive talk, and psychosocial exchange than do male physicians (unpublished data).13, 14 These differences can have important implications for the nature of the therapeutic relationship developed by male and female physicians with their patients and can

Conclusions

The implication of these findings points to more than simply the “turning of the discriminatory tables” once favoring males now to favor females, at least in some contexts. The challenge for a more positive transformation in the everyday practice of medicine includes the generation of gender-neutral social norms regarding patient expectations and judgments of physician conduct, as well as the establishment of medical practice norms that value communication skills and interpersonal sensitivity.

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