Longitudinal trends in physician preferences for referrals to same-sex surgeons: a population-based study

This population-based study of over 27 million referrals to surgeons demonstrated that patient sharing among physicians and surgeons is influenced by the sex of the patient, referring physician, and surgeon. Importantly, the study demonstrated that male patients are unlikely to be referred to female surgeons, particularly if seen by a male physician. These disparities are not improving over time .