Story highlights Dr. Jennifer Caudle: A recent study showed that patients are in better hands with female physicians

However, the study leaves many unanswered questions for future researchers to parse, she writes

Jennifer Caudle is a board-certified family medicine physician and assistant professor of family medicine at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine in New Jersey. Follow her on Twitter @DrJenCaudle. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) "Did we really need a study to tell us this?"

That was what one of my colleagues said on Facebook the day this study, from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was published saying that male and female physicians have different patient outcomes. Researchers analyzed data from over 1 million patients to see if 30-day mortality and hospital readmission rates differed between patients treated by male and female internal medicine physicians. The conclusion? Patients treated by female physicians had lower mortality and lower hospital readmission rates than patients treated by male physicians.

"Damn straight!" cheered others of my fellow female physicians from far and wide.

Dr. Jennifer Caudle

Not only does this study have potentially wide-reaching health implications, but it might also help push the needle for gender equality in medicine further. As a female family physician, I must admit that I felt empowered after reading the study. It felt good to see a study that recognized the work and efforts of female physicians and it makes me proud to see that female doctors provide great care. While this study argues that women make outstanding physicians (perhaps with better patient outcomes), it must also be said that men make outstanding physicians, too. Male and female physicians work together, and as the saying goes, "it takes a village."

Study researchers acknowledged that "literature has shown that female doctors may be more likely to adhere to clinical guidelines, provide preventive care more often, use more patient-centered communication, perform as well or better on standardized examinations, and provide more psychosocial counseling to their patients than do their male peers." Given these characteristics, some might have assumed the very outcome that the study demonstrated, that female physicians may have healthier outcomes for patients than male physicians.

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