New Studies Suggest Female Doctors Make Better Surgeons Than Male Doctors

Studies from Canada and Sweden claim patients operated on by female surgeons are less likely to have adverse outcomes including death 12 months post operation

Two new studies out of Canada and Sweden suggest that patients operated on by female surgeons are less likely to require follow-up care related to adverse outcomes including death within the 12-month period post operation.

A cohort study, published by the American Medical Association's monthly journal JAMA Surgery, and conducted on more than 1 million adult patients in Ontario, Canada between Jan. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2019, examined the surgical outcomes of patients who underwent one in 25 common elective or emergency surgeries.

The analysis demonstrated that at 90 days post surgery, 13.9 percent of patients operated on by a male surgeon experienced “adverse postoperative outcomes,” including death, readmission to a medical facility or post-operative complications, whereas within the same period, 12.5 percent of patients treated by a female surgeon experienced adverse reactions post surgery.

Additionally, the study showed that one year post surgery, those figures adjusted to 20.7 percent of patients treated by female surgeons experiencing an adverse post-operative outcome, compared to 25 percent of those treated by male surgeons.

Related: 35-Year-Old Navy SEAL Turned Harvard Doctor Becomes NASA's First Korean-American Astronaut

The Ontario study also compared mortality rates within the same cohort, noting that 12 months post-surgery, 2.4 percent of patients operated on by a male surgeon died within one year of surgery compared to 1.6 percent of patients under the care of a female surgeon.

Dr. Christopher Wallis, a urologic oncologist at the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai who co-authored the study, told The Guardian, “As a male surgeon, I think these data should cause me and my colleagues to pause and consider why this may be.”

A second study also published by JAMA Surgery focused on 150,000 patients in Sweden who underwent a cholecystectomy, or surgery to remove one's gallbladder. The study, based on data from the Swedish Registry of Gallstone Surgery, was composed of 849 (33.3 percent) female surgeons and 1,704 (67.7 percent) male surgeons.

The Swedish study found that patients under the care of female surgeons experienced "fewer surgical complications" including bile duct injuries in elective surgery, while also having "significantly longer operation times," per the JAMA study, than their male counterparts.

Additionally, the study found that female surgeons who operated more slowly, were less likely to switch from laparoscopic, or keyhole surgery, to open surgery, and their patients experienced shorter stays in the hospital post-care.

Dr. My Blohm of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, who co-authored the Sweden study, claimed the findings suggest that surgical technique and risk-taking behaviors might explain some of the gendered differences observed in surgical outcomes.

Related: Surgeon Fined $3,000 for Mistakenly Amputating the Wrong Leg on a Patient

“In some countries, there is a general belief that male surgeons are superior to female surgeons,” Blohm wrote JAMA Surgery. “Interestingly, most previously published studies indicate that female surgeons are at least as good as male surgeons, or as in this case even slightly better.”

Wallis claimed that while men and women differ in how they practice medicine, "embracing or adopting some practices" that are commonly used among female surgeons is "likely to improve outcomes" for patients under the care of male doctors.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“Since undertaking this work," Wallis told The Guardian, "I have certainly done this personally and would encourage my colleagues to do the same: use this as a moment for introspection.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.