Study shows that about a third of patients call their doctors by their first names. At the same time, this happens twice as often with female doctors.
American scientists from the Mayo Clinic decided to find out how often informal relationships arise between doctors and patients. One of their manifestations is the patient's appeal to the doctor. So, if he calls his attending physician “Dr. Smith”, then this is one thing, but if it's just John, then this shows a great closeness between them. In total, the researchers analyzed about 90 text messages between 1,092 doctors and almost 15,000 patients.
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It turned out that about a third of people address their doctors less formally, that is, just by name. But women were referred to by name twice as often as their male counterparts. It is curious that there was some variation in the specialization of doctors. Osteopathic physicians were also twice as likely to be addressed by their first names than physicians with an M.D. degree.
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Finally, primary care physicians, that is, general practitioners by name, were addressed 50% more often than narrow specialists. But female patients were 40% less likely to call their doctors by name. The researchers adjusted for the demographics of patients and doctors, including their age and gender, but did not take into account possible cultural, racial or ethnic nuances. They also didn't test how doctors themselves felt about patients addressing them less formally. (READ MORE)
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non-profit organization, one of the largest private medical and research centers in the world