More On Female Doctors And Productivity

Last week I quoted an article from the National Post:

"The growing ranks of female physicians in Canada will slash medical productivity by the equivalent of at least 1,600 doctors within a decade, concludes a provocative new analysis of data indicating that female MDs work fewer hours on average than their male colleagues."

As a result of that post I got an email pointing out an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association of February 25, 2009 titled "The Feminization of Medicine and Population Health" (subscription required).

Some key quotes:

"Recent reports identifying lower productivity among female physicians have debated whether more women in medicine will exacerbate a shortage of physicians by limiting patient
access to care."

"In developed countries, the number of physicians per capita, alone and separated from any analysis of the nature of care provided, has no association with mortality rates."

"Although physician density is not a determinant of health outcomes, a greater proportion of generalists to specialists among those same physicians is associated with increased longevity of the population."

In a nutshell, female doctors tend to be generalists and the more generalists there are the longer people live. Quality of care counts more than quantity of care.