VIDEO: Female physicians more likely to order pap smears, mammograms, colonoscopies

Female physicians were more likely than male physicians to adhere to guidelines for pap smears, breast cancer screening and colon cancer screening, according to research that was scheduled to be presented at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting.

The meeting was canceled because of COVID-19, but the organization posted a video of the presentation, which was recorded and submitted by the researchers. It is among the winners of ACP’s 2020 National Abstracts Competition.

Elizabeth A. Bankstahl, MD, FACP, internist at Ascension St. John Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and colleagues reviewed more than 2,800 patient charts to assess physician and patient adherence to guidelines for pap smears, breast cancer screening, colon cancer screening and prostate cancer screening.

Although female physicians were more likely than male physicians to order pap smears, mammograms and colonoscopies, there was no difference in patient adherence, according to Bankstahl.

“Whether it was a male physician or a female physician, the patient would always get the test done,” she told Healio Primary Care. “The only thing that really, truly mattered in this study was that the physician ordered it, and females were more likely to order it.”