Patients treated by women doctors in hospital were a little less likely to die — across nearly a million stays

A Canadian study of 958,150 adults admitted to hospital for common conditions such as heart attacks and pneumonia found that patients cared for by female physicians had a 30-day death rate of 12.3%, compared with 13.7% for patients of male physicians, and slightly fewer returns to hospital. The researchers, led by Dr Angela Jerath of the University of Toronto, say the gap is small for any one patient but meaningful across a whole health system. The study is published in JAMA Network Open.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being