Women doctors ‘best for female heart patients’

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(BBC News) — Women who have a heart attack are more likely to survive if they are treated by a female doctor in hospital, a major US study suggests.

An analysis of 580,000 heart attack cases over 19 years found 13.3% died after being treated by a man compared with 12% who were cared for by a woman.

Their chances were also improved if treated by a male doctor who had a lot of female colleagues in his team.

One theory is that men may be worse at treating women, researchers said.

Independent experts said more work was needed to see if the findings applied to UK hospitals.

Researchers looked through anonymous patient data from Florida hospitals between 1991 and 2010. (…)

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