The Ideal Orthopaedic Surgeon: Comparing Patient Preferences of Surgeon Attributes to Notions Held by Orthopaedic Postgraduates

Introduction: Stereotypes have been a barrier to providing patients a diverse orthopaedic workforce. Our goal was to identify stereotypes and disparities among doctors and their patients regarding the attributes that should determine a competent orthopaedic surgeon. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive multicenter study was conducted in India. Tailored questionnaires were administered to patients and orthopaedic postgraduates to determine the attributes they believe patients prefer in their orthopaedic surgeon. Likert data and data on preferred sex of the surgeon were analyzed as categorical data sets using frequency statistics. Participants were asked to rank surgeon attributes and analysis was based on frequency of an item among top 5 surgeon attributes. Results: 304 patients and 91 orthopaedic postgraduates participated in the study. 70.4% and 73% of patients and 27.5% and 29.6% of postgraduates preferred an orthopaedic surgeon with greater physical strength as an outpatient consultant or operating surgeon respectively. 81% of patients had no preference of the sex of their doctor. 56% of postgraduates felt patients would prefer a male operating surgeon, none felt their patient would prefer female orthopaedic surgeon. 92.3% of the female postgraduates felt patients would prefer a male orthopaedic surgeon. Patients most often ranked years of experience, surgical outcomes, time spent with patients, reputation, and physical strength in their top 5 surgeon attributes and sex, religion, and community were given least importance. Conclusion: Diversity among the orthopaedic workforce is necessary to optimize patient care. It is our collective responsibility to educate our patients and trainees and redress the misconceptions and stereotypes that plague our profession.