Gender concordant teleconsulting lowers patient satisfaction: Study

Panaji: A study by the Goa Institute of Management examining the “Gender Concordance Paradox” in India’s growing telemedicine sector found that matching patients with doctors of the same gender may actually lower satisfaction in virtual consultations.While earlier research into in-person healthcare settings showed patients often reported higher satisfaction when treated by doctors of the same gender, the new study found the opposite trend in telemedicine. The research was conducted by Dr Nafisa Vaz, assistant professor of healthcare management at GIM, and Dr Vishalkumar Jani, head of research at Practo.The findings were published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research and were based on a collaboration between GIM and Practo.

The study also analysed 2,86,196 anonymised teleconsultation records from a nationwide telemedicine provider between Jan 2023 and Dec 2024, making it one of the largest studies on gender and telemedicine in the Global South. The data covered around 20 medical specialties.Researchers found that 60.4% of consultations were gender concordant. Overall, 91.3% of patients reported a positive experience, but gender concordance showed a statistically significant negative association with patient satisfaction.

An “expectation-surprise” effect was also observed among male patients, who reported higher satisfaction when treated by female clinicians, attributed to perceived communication and empathy.The study concluded that gender matching is not a universal predictor of successful consultations, though it remains relevant for intimate health concerns.Patient satisfaction with doctor interaction, emerged as the one of the strongest predictor of patient recovery.