Last week, while on vacation, my husband and I were swimming in a salt-water inlet when a rainstorm hit. (Actually, I was indulging in my favorite hobby and floating prone, chin resting on my forearm, on a lime green inner tube.)

Fortunately, there was no lightning, though there was a bit of hail. We decided to stick it out. Heck, we were already wet.

As we floated along with the outgoing tide, I noticed that with the downpour, each drop appeared to be popping up from below the surface, rather than striking from above. I was amazed by how real the illusion appeared. But being aware of the “science” of rain, I knew the true source of the drop was the sky.

It struck me that my most recent podcast episode also delves into an illusion.

Research has shown that women physicians spend more time in the electronic health record than their male colleagues. Just looking at the surface, you might surmise that the women are less efficient, and perhaps in need of additional training or the guidance of a superuser.

But more nuanced research by my guest, Dr. Lisa Rotenstein, and others reveals that the real cause is more complex. Women receive more inbox messages from patients and from staff. They also respond to messages more quickly. Added to that, as I learned from Dr. Rotenstein, patients hold expectations about communication with their female clinicians and will rate them based on these expectations—yet don’t hold the same expectations of male clinicians.

Fascinating—and leads to a completely different conclusion about the data on EHR use. It’s not that women clinicians are less efficient—it’s that they are doing different work and responding to different patient expectations about communication. In the episode, Dr. Rotenstein offers some wise suggestions about how we can address the additional stress (and higher burnout rates) that women clinicians are experiencing, due in part to these differences.

Check out the episode at https://dianeshannon.com/vital-signs-podcast/—and let me know: do these data mesh with your experience as a clinician? Do you notice different patient expectations based on your gender? And how might being aware of these differences help you?