Older doctors are losing their edge—And it can have a scary impact on you

pulse

May 22, 2017 9:01 PM

A new study from Harvard found a slight but significant effect.

old doctors losing edge

You don’t need to go full Doogie Howser, but it may be in your best interest to find a younger doctor.

A new study from a research university called Harvard found that patient mortality rates increase with the physician’s age. The effect is slight but still significant.

Researchers examined more than 70,000 hospital admissions for elderly patients under the supervision of more than 19,000 physicians. The mortality rate for patients with doctors under 30 was 10.8 percent, while that figure rose to 11.1 percent for doctors between 40 and 49. For doctors between 50 and 59, the rate goes up to 11.3 percent, and it jumps up to 12.1 percent for doctors older than 60.

While this data is eye opening, it’s important to note that the researchers found a correlation between physician age and patient mortality rate, not causation. The authors, led by Yusuke Tsugawa, suggest that doctors’ skills may deteriorate over time or they could simply become outdated. Younger doctors have more recent training in the most effective practices to date.

As the paper says, “Hospital medicine is among the most rapidly evolving specialties within medicine … including greater emphasis on multi-professional team based practice, adherence to clinical guidelines, training on patient handoffs, familiarity with shift work during residency training, and an improved hospital safety culture."

So, technically, the problem may not be that your doctor is ancient. It’s just that their training is.

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