Medical schools in empires: connecting the dots.

This article provides an overview of the historiography of medical education and calls for greater attention to the connections between medical schools. It begins by reviewing research on medical education in imperial metropoles. Researchers have compared medical schools in different national contexts, traced travellers between them or examined the hierarchies that medical education created within the medical profession. The article then shows how historians have emphasised the ways in which medicine in colonial empires was shaped by negotiation, exchange, hybridisation and competition. The final part of the article introduces the special issue 'Medical Education in Empires'. Drawing on a variety of sources in English, French, Dutch and Chinese, the special issue builds on these historiographies by juxtaposing cases of medical schools in imperial contexts since the eighteenth century. It considers who funded these medical schools and why, what models of medicine underpinned their creation, what social changes they contributed to, what life was like in these schools, who the students and teachers were and what graduates did with their medical careers. This special issue thus contributes to clarifying the role of medical education in empires and the long-term impact of empires on the medical world.

The expansion of medical education in the Dutch East Indies and the formation of the Indonesian medical profession.

In 1851, the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies established a two-year program to educate young Javanese men to become vaccinators in Batavia (today's Jakarta). During the following sixty years, the medical curriculum was expanded several times; in 1913, it consisted of a ten-year program. In 1927, the Batavia Medical School, granting degrees equivalent to those of Dutch university-affiliated medical schools, commenced operations. Consequently, a steadily increasing number of Indonesian physicians with various credentials were employed by the colonial health service, plantations, sugar factories and mines, or established private practices. They became a social group that occupied an ambiguous and even paradoxical position somewhere between Europeans and the indigenous population. During the 1910s, this inspired these physicians to obtain credentials and professional recognition equal to those of their European colleagues. Several of them became active in journalism, politics and social movements. During the 1920s, several became radicalised and criticised the nature of colonial society. In the 1930s, following the increasingly repressive nature of colonial society, most of them remained active in the public sphere while a small group dedicated itself to improving medical research and health care. After the transfer of sovereignty from the Netherlands to Indonesia on 27 December 1949, this small cadre reestablished medical education and health care, and built the Indonesian medical profession.

When the Penny Drops: Understanding how social class influences speciality careers in the UK medical profession.

In the UK, the medical profession is socially exclusive and socially stratified as doctors from more advantaged backgrounds are more likely to train for specialities with more competitive entry. However, in research to date the causes and consequences of social stratification have been overlooked. We explore this subject here, drawing on a qualitative study comprising in-depth interviews with 30 medical students and doctors from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds negotiating medical school and early careers. Using Bourdieu's 'theory of practice' we show how socialisation in the family and at school influences how aspirant medics from less advantaged backgrounds view the world, suggesting some inclination towards more community orientated careers, which may be less competitive. However, these tendencies are encouraged as they lack stocks of social, economic and cultural capital, which are convertible to power and position in the field. While allowing for both choice and constraint our core argument is that speciality outcomes are sometimes inequitable and potentially inefficient, as doctors from more advantaged backgrounds have privileged access to more competitive careers for reasons not solely related to ability or skill. Our main theoretical contribution is to literature in the sociology of medical education where ours is the first study to open-up the 'black box' of causal factors connecting medical students' resources on entering the field of education and training with speciality outcomes, though our findings also have important implications for practitioners, the profession and for patients. We discuss the implications for safe and effective healthcare and how this informs directions for future research.

Mental health stigma in the medical profession: Where do we go from here?

Mental health conditions are highly prevalent among physicians with high rates of depression, anxiety, stress-related disorders, suicidal ideation and burnout reported among medical practitioners at all levels of training and practice. This phenomenon is in part contributed by a highly stressful clinical environment with an often suboptimal support system for doctors. Concerningly, there is hitherto a striking reluctance amongst medical trainees/practitioners to seek treatment/help for mental health-related conditions due to fear of associated stigma and negative career repercussions. In this article, we sought to raise awareness of the mental health stigma that has long been prevailing in the medical community, and review the key drivers of such stigma at the individual, community and organisational level. In general, drivers of mental health stigma in the medical profession include self-stigmatisation predisposed by physician personality and character traits, societal stereotypes about mental illness permeating through the medical community, and systemic constructs such as mandatory mental health declarations for medical licensure that perpetuate the unfortunate perception that mental illness appears synonymous with job impairment or incompetency. To destigmatise mental health issues in the medical profession, we herein propose multi-pronged strategies which can practically be implemented: 1) normalisation of mental health issues through open dialogue and sharing, 2) creating a supportive, "psychologically friendly" work environment through increased accessibility to workplace mental health support services, peer support systems, and reduction of psychiatric "name-calling" practices, and 3) reviewing systemic practices, in particular the mandatory mental health declarations for medical registration, that perpetuate mental health stigma.

A critical analysis of newspaper accounts of violence against doctors in India.

This paper presents a critical analysis of newspaper articles (N = 60) published in a leading vernacular newspaper about violence against doctors in India. Adopting a theoretical perspective that considers 'news as a cultural practice,' a qualitative content analysis was conducted to examine how the phenomenon is framed and presented in the news, i.e., what is problematized, what causal links are drawn or hinted at, what moral stance is taken or alluded to, and what solutions are proffered and why, to arrive at a nuanced understanding of various aspects of this social phenomenon. Three overlapping key themes emerged from the analysis, namely the narrative of victimization, the changing doctor-patient relationship, and the crisis facing the 'noble profession' of medicine. It reveals how the media shapes public opinion and attitudes towards the state of the medical profession while in turn, reflecting existing opinions, attitudes, and cultural values; the analysis also reveals missing perspectives such as the voices of the patients and the public. We highlight how the findings are not merely the dominant ways in which the rise in incidents of violence against doctors is reported and is understood in society, but how media might have shaped the popular discourse around the issue and why. We reflect on what the reportage says about the state of the medical profession and its standing in society in India.

Orientación profesional vocacional hacia la carrera de Medicina en estudiantes de preuniversitario

La elección de una profesión constituye un momento crítico en la vida de los adolescentes. Es un proceso complejo en el que intervienen factores personales y sociales relacionados con la adquisición de conocimientos, habilidades, valores, así como con oportunidades laborales. Con el objetivo de estructurar los referentes teóricos sobre la orientación profesional vocacional hacia la carrera de Medicina en estudiantes de preuniversitario, se realizó una búsqueda actualizada sobre el tema, consultándose 30 referencias bibliográficas. Se abordaron aspectos generales del desarrollo de la orientación profesional-vocacional, reseñas históricas, conceptos, y etapas y desarrollo de este en Cuba hacia la carrera de Medicina. La etapa de la preparación para la selección profesional se dirige a preparar al educando para la selección profesional autodeterminada, y juega un papel fundamental dentro del sistema de influencias educativas que intervienen en el estudiante de preuniversitario, propiciando, desde la orientación profesional, el desarrollo de la motivación e interés del estudiante a niveles superiores. La formación de profesionales competentes y comprometidos con el desarrollo social constituye hoy día una misión esencial de la educación superior. Esta actividad cobra un extraordinario valor en la universidad médica actual, para asumir el compromiso social y obtener graduados con un alto nivel profesional.

Choosing a profession is a critical moment in adolescent lives. It is a complex process involving personal and social factors related to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, as well as job opportunities. With the aim of structuring the theoretical references on vocational professional orientation towards a career in Medicine in pre-university students, an updated search on the topic was carried out, consulting 30 bibliographic references. General aspects of the development of professional-vocational guidance, historical reviews, concepts, stages and development of this topic in Cuba towards the career of Medicine were addressed. The stage of preparation for professional selection is aimed at preparing the student for self-determined professional selection, and plays a fundamental role within the system of educational influences which impact on the pre-university student, promoting the development of student motivation and interest at higher levels through professional guidance. The training of competent professionals committed to social development is today an essential mission of higher education. This activity has extraordinary value in the current medical university, to assume social commitment and to have graduates with a high professional level.

[Dialogues with neural networks about the present and future of medical professions: risks and prospects].

The article examines the risks to social perception of health professions in the context of the growing popularity of generative textual and visual neural networks. The article is consistent with the growing body of research that tends to see more risks of this technology, including for healthcare. The second focus of the article - the stereotypes about health professions - is critical, as they have been associated with negative outcomes for the healthcare system. The study primarily focuses on the perception of nursing professionals as most stereotyped by the public. Using uploads from the chatGPT, Kandinsky, and Shedevrum networks, the author has investigated the neural network's embedded perceptions of the nursing profession. Reproduction of certain stereotypes has been identified in all neural networks; the appearance stereotypes (gender, age, race, uniform) are more often shared by visual neural networks, while the function stereotypes (lack of autonomy, dependence on colleagues) - by text networks. Actually, we can assume the risks of a vicious circle, when the network is trained on the largely stereotypical data, and products based on its output increase the scale of stereotypical representations during subsequent training of the neural network. Developers' efforts to avoid reproducing stereotypes are acknowledged, however, the uploads show that they are not fully successful. To prevent the spread of perceptual distortions in neural networks, it is recommended to promote their sociohumanistic evaluation. A «prompt-experiment¼ is proposed as a mechanism for identifying such risks.

Deconstructing the masculinized assumption of the medical profession: narratives of Japanese physician fathers.

BACKGROUND: Gender studies in the medical profession have revealed gender biases associated with being a doctor, a profession often regarded as more suitable for men. The path to gender equality inevitably involves deconstructing this masculinized assumption. Despite the decades-long expectation that ikumen-men who actively participate in childcare in Japan-would contribute to a change toward gender equality, Japanese society is still male dominated, and women suffer from a large gender gap. With the aim of exploring implicit gendered assumptions concerning being a caregiver and a doctor, the authors focused on the experience of individuals juggling the binary roles of a professional and a caregiver. METHODS: The authors conducted subjectivist inductive research, recruited ten Japanese physician fathers through purposive sampling, and collected data through one-to-one semi-structured interviews between October 2017 and December 2018. The authors recorded and transcribed the narrative data, and extracted themes and representative narratives. RESULTS: The study identified three themes about the reproduction and potential change of the gender gap: maintaining gendered assumptions of the medical profession without experiencing conflict, maintaining gendered assumptions of the medical profession while experiencing conflict, and deconstructing gendered assumptions of the medical profession through conflict. The authors found that these negotiations interplayed with the gendered division of labor between male doctors and their wives as well as the patriarchal family structure. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed how gendered assumptions of the medical profession, as well as gender stereotypes and gendered division of household labor, were reproduced in the course of male doctors' negotiations when they became fathers. For male doctors to question their unconscious gender bias, the authors emphasize the importance of men gaining knowledge about gender stereotypes, and propose that educators create such opportunities. Moreover, the authors assert that increasing doctors' awareness of how masculinized assumptions implicitly interact with ideas of being a doctor-an aspect rarely discussed among medical professionals-is crucial for deconstructing the gendered normativity in the medical field.

[What Kind of Doctors Will be Needed in the Future?] / Welche Ärztinnen und Ärzte braucht es in der Zukunft?

What Kind of Doctors Will be Needed in the Future? Abstract: To get a notion regarding the future of medical doctors, the changes in the health care system and in society must be considered, for only then can the future professional profile be envisaged. The following text shall illustrate why more diversity among patients and staff as well as more diverse care settings are to be expected due to the coming social developments. Consequently, the professional role of medical doctors will become more fluid and more fragmentary. Medical careers will include more role changes in the future, and the question of co-evolution in the health professions will become much more relevant. All this raises fundamental considerations regarding education and training, but also regarding one's professional identity.

[Physician working hours and effects on health, satisfaction and healthcare]. / Arbeitszeit bei Ärzt:innen und Auswirkungen auf Gesundheit, Zufriedenheit und Gesundheitsversorgung.

Changes in the working environment with respect to innovative working time models are also increasingly affecting patient care. The number of physicians working part-time, for example, is continuously rising. At the same time, a general increase in chronic diseases and multimorbid conditions as well as the growing shortage of medical staff, leads to more workload and dissatisfaction among this profession. This short overview summarizes the current study situation and associated consequences regarding working hours of physicians and gives a first explorative overview of possible solutions.

Health profession students' outlooks on the medical profession during the COVID-19 pandemic: a global perspective.

BACKGROUND: This article summarizes a global study of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on junior health professions students' outlook on medicine. The pandemic has significantly affected health professions education. There is limited understanding of how students' pandemic experiences will affect them, and what impact these events may have on their career paths or the future of the professions. This information is important as it impacts the future of medicine. METHODS: In the Fall 2020 semester, 219 health professions students at 14 medical universities worldwide responded to the question: 'Has this experience (with COVID-19) changed your outlook on medicine as a profession?'. Short essay responses were semantically coded and organized into themes and subthemes using an inductive approach to thematic analysis. RESULTS: 145 responses were submitted. Themes were identified: (1) students reflected on the interaction between politics and healthcare; (2) reported becoming more aware of the societal expectations placed on healthcare professionals, including undertaking high risks and the sacrifices that healthcare professionals must make; (3) found reassurance from the recognized importance of healthcare professionals and expressed pride to be entering the profession; and (4) reflected on the current state of healthcare, including its limitations and future. CONCLUSION: Most students, independent of the extent of the pandemic in their respective countries, noted a change in their outlook regarding medicine. An overall positive outlook was noted in most junior students. Educators need to work on nurturing these sentiments and attitudes to help young students maintain a healthy relationship towards their chosen profession.

Doctor sahab: Doctors and the public in the 'golden era' of the Indian medical profession.

This essay analyses and historicises a contemporary dominant narrative among India's biomedical doctors, that the early post-independence period (1940s-1970s) was characterised by immense public trust and confidence in the biomedical profession, with the patient-doctor relationship experiencing a 'golden era'. By exploring people's experiences with and perceptions of doctors during these decades, I show that contrary to contemporary understanding, public dissatisfaction with doctors was substantial even in the early post-independence period. I argue that the dominance of privileged-caste and -class Indians in the medical profession nurtured a caste privilege-based elitist outlook within the mainstream profession and its leadership and created an insurmountable socioeconomic distance between doctors and the large majority of the public. What doctors deemed as people's 'trust' in them and their profession was often simply a manifestation of people's general deference towards the elites of the society. This incorrect interpretation of patient-doctor dynamics in the past has been a constant feature of mainstream narratives around the doctor-society relationship in post-independence India and has remained largely under-explored and under-historicised in the medical, scholarly and public discourses.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) of Medical Professionals on Euthanasia: A Study From a Tertiary Care Centre in India.

INTRODUCTION: Euthanasia or mercy killing has remained as a matter of extensive debate and ethical conflicts in the scientific literature. Discussions on this theme have got legal, religious, political and philosophical ramifications. AIM OF THE STUDY: The present study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of medical professionals in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: After taking prior approval from the institutional ethics committee a structured questionnaire was prepared and distributed among 200 consenting medical professionals in a tertiary care centre in the North-Western region of India. RESULTS: 50% of the respondents said that they were sure of the existing regulation on euthanasia in India. When gender differences were considered a significant difference (p=0.0147) was found between the two sexes regarding the alternate decision maker for deciding euthanasia. It was observed that there was a significant difference(p=0.0055) between those with the age more than 30 years and aged less than 30 years regarding the type of euthanasia that is justifiable. DISCUSSION: In the present study, the percentage of doctors favouring euthanasia is higher than compared in previous studies. The view of euthanasia is highly variable in different studies. Even though passive euthanasia has been legalised recently, there is an apprehension that it might be misused.

"We are not the ethics police": The professionalization of clinical ethicists and the regulation of medical decision-making.

Clinical ethicists represent a growing profession in U.S. healthcare. This profession's aspirations include serving as a supportive resource to hospital staff, but also as an ethics "watchdog," ensuring that medical decision-making adheres to ethical standards. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews conducted in 2021 of clinical ethicists working across the U.S., I evaluate the extent to which these watchdog aspirations have been achieved. I investigate ethicists' success in leveraging three strategies aspiring professions have used to secure their jurisdictional claims: acquiring professional expertise, securing administrative authority, and cultivating trusting relationships. I show that ethicists face barriers to leveraging each, which has consequences for how ethical dilemmas are resolved. Findings point to challenges aspiring professions must overcome in order to claim jurisdictions posing a threat to incumbent professions; the tensions that exist between legal risk management and clinical ethics; and the organizational strategies marginal actors leverage to advance their interests and influence the delivery of healthcare.

Every doctor an educator?

INTRODUCTION: The education of the future health care workforce is fundamental to ensuring safe, effective, and inclusive patient care. Despite this there has been chronic underinvestment in health care education and, even though there is an increased need for educators, the true number of medical educators has been in relative decline for over a decade. PURPOSE: In this paper, we focus on the role of doctors as medical educators. We reflect on the culture in which medical education and training are delivered, the challenges faced, and their origins and sustaining factors. We propose a re-framing of this culture by applying Maslow's principles of the hierarchy of needs to medical educators, not only as individuals but as a specialist group and to the system in which this group works, to instigate actionable change and promote self-actualization for medical educators. DISCUSSION: Promoting and supporting the work of doctors who are educators is critically important. Despite financial investment in some practice areas, overall funding for and the number of medical educators continues to decline. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) schemes such as those offered by specialised medical education associations are welcomed, but without time, funding and a supportive culture from key stakeholders, medical educators cannot thrive and reach their potential. CONCLUSION: We need to revolutionise the culture in which medical education is practised, where medical educators are valued and commensurately rewarded as a diverse group of specialists who have an essential role in training the health care workforce to support the delivery of excellent, inclusive health care for patients. By reimagining the challenges faced as a hierarchy we show that until the fundamental needs of value, funding and time are realised, it will remain challenging to instigate the essential change that is needed.

When things go wrong: experiences of vaginal mesh complications.

INTRODUCTION: Previous research has suggested that complications stemming from vaginal mesh can lead to life-changing negative physical consequences including erosion and chronic pain. However, there has been little research on the experiences of women who have had complications. This study was aimed at exploring the individual experiences of women who have had vaginal mesh complications and how this has impacted them. METHODS: An explorative qualitative design was followed. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who had experienced complications with vaginal mesh due to stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. The mean age was 52 and the mean time since the mesh was fitted was 8 years (6 had since had it removed and a further 6 had had partial removal), and the mean time since first mesh-related symptom was 10 months. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four main themes were identified: perceived impact of mesh complications, attitudes of medical professionals, social support and positive growth. Results showed that participant experiences of their mesh complication were psychologically traumatic, including feelings of increased anxiety and fears relating to suicidal thoughts. Intimate relationships were also affected, with reduced sexual functioning and intimacy stemming from mesh complications. Negative experiences with medical professionals included feeling dismissed, a lack of recognition of their symptoms, and anger towards the profession. CONCLUSIONS: The impacts of vaginal mesh complications were found to be wide-reaching and life-changing, affecting numerous aspects of participants' lives. Greater awareness in this area is needed to provide further support for women experiencing vaginal mesh complications.

Digitalization and disruptive change in rheumatology.

INTRODUCTION: Recently, many sectors have seen disruptive changes due to the rapid progress in information and communication technology (ICT). The aim of this systematic literature review was to develop a first understanding of what is known about new ICTs in rheumatology and their disruptive potential. METHODS: PubMed, LIVIVO, and EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) databases were searched for relevant literature. Use of new ICTs was identified, categorized, and disruptive potential was discussed. Articles from 2008 to 2021 in German and English were considered. RESULTS: A total of 3539 articles were identified. After application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, 55 articles were included in the analyses. The majority of articles (48) used a non-experimental design or detailed expert opinion. The new ICTs mentioned in these articles could be allocated to four main categories: technologies that prepare for the development of new knowledge by data collection (n = 32); technologies that develop new knowledge by evaluation of data (e.g., by inventing better treatment; n = 11); technologies that improve communication of existing knowledge (n = 32); and technologies that improve the care process (n = 29). Further assessment classified the ICTs into different functional subcategories. Based on these categories it is possible to estimate the disruptive potential of new ICTs. CONCLUSION: ICTs are becoming increasingly important in rheumatology and may impact patients' lives and professional conduct. The properties and disruptive potential of technologies identified in the articles differ widely. When looking into ICTs, doctors have focused on new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures but rarely on their disruptive potential. We recommend putting more effort into investigation of whether ICTs change the way rheumatology is performed and who is in control of it. Especially technologies that potentially replace physicians with machines, take control over the definition of quality in medicine, and/or create proprietary knowledge that is not accessible for doctors need more research.

The profession of psycho-oncologist in Poland as an example of inadequate legal regulation in the area of health care. / Zawód psychoonkologa w Polsce jako przyklad niewlasciwej regulacji prawnej w obszarze ochrony zdrowia.

The profession of psycho-oncologist in Poland is not sufficiently regulated by law. The issue is further complicated by the fact that this profession has not been classified by the legislature in the group of medical professions, but only in the group of allied health professions. Currently, according to the Regulation of the Minister of Health on guaranteed services in the field of hospital treatment, a psycho-oncologist is a person with higher medical education, i.e. a graduate of a medical university, for example a doctor or a nurse, who has fulfilled the additional condition of completing postgraduate studies in psycho-oncology. It is thus clear that the legal definition of the profession of a psycho-oncologist remaining in force is inconsistent with the regulation of this profession in force since 2018, resulting from the announcement of the same minister in the Polish Qualifications Framework (PQF - Polska Rama Kwalifikacji, abbrev. PRK). This is because the PQF limits the group of persons who may obtain a qualification in the area of psycho-oncological diagnosis and treatment to psychologists and psychiatrists only, thus limiting the group of persons authorised to practise the profession of a psycho-oncologist. An additional legal problem results from significant differences in the nature of the professions of a medical doctor and psychologist, due to the fact that the Act on the Profession of a Psychologist does not apply in practice, despite remaining in force formally. Thus, a psychologist who practises the profession of a psycho-oncologist, might additionally be a subject to the lack of legal regulation of their "foundation profession", for example due to the fact that it is impossible for a psychologist to obtain a licence to practise their profession, as there is no body to grant them such a licence. Finally, it should not be overlooked that, in addition to the two contradictory regulations of the profession of a psycho-oncologist mentioned above (Regulation of the Minister of Health and the PQF), there also exists a third path to obtain the so-called psycho-oncologist certificate, awarded by the Polish Psycho-oncology Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Psychoonkologiczne - PTPO). At present, persons certified via this path, who include, apart from psychologists and doctors, also representatives of other professions, such as nurses or clergy employed in hospices, will in the majority of cases not be able to formally practise the profession, because the legislature has not provided for the recognition of certificates issued by the PTPO as equivalent to obtaining a psycho-oncological qualification in the context of the above-mentioned regulations.

Symptoms of Burnout Syndrome among Physicians during the Outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic-A Systematic Literature Review.

Background: Studies in the recent decades show that the medical profession has a high risk to develop burnout due to constant exposure to mental and physical suffering or death. The pandemic period induced additional stress for healthcare professionals due to the likelihood of a high rate of infection, long working shifts, using protective equipment, staying away from family, implementing new medical procedures. The present study is focusing on assessing the prevalence of burnout among physicians working in the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic, and discovering the main factors associated with burnout syndrome among the population of physicians. Material and methods: A systematic review was conducted by searching PubMed, Wiley, and Google Scholar in November 2021. A total of 35 studies were eligible for the evaluation. Results: The samples ranged from 39 to 3071 physicians, and the overall burnout ranged from 14.7% to 90.4%. Sociodemographic characteristics associated with a high prevalence of burnout were the female gender, less experienced, not having children, and single marital status, associated with high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress in the female gender. The highest level of burnout among all the studies was 90.4% on a sample of physicians from the Republic of Korea, 80.2% among psychiatrists in Saudi Arabia, followed by a study in Ireland with a 77% level of burnout among senior and specialist physicians, and 74.7% prevalence of burnout for emergency physicians in USA. Conclusions: During the pandemic, the factors that contribute to burnout are the lack of personal protective equipment and the violence of issues related to organizational health; the high prevalence of burnout symptoms is associated with anxiety, depression, and stress.

Suicide among physicians: Major risk for women physicians.

INTRODUCTION: The risk of suicide is related to professional activity. Preliminary data suggest that being in the medical profession increases the risk of suicide in women. The objective of this nationwide study is to compare the death rate of physicians due to suicide with that of the general population and to assess the differences based on gender. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All physicians and the general population who died by suicide in Spain between 2005 and 2014, both inclusive, were studied. Between these years, the Spanish population grew from 43,662,613 to 46,455,123 persons and from 199,123 to 238,240 number of doctors. The data relating to the deaths of physicians were extracted from the databases of the General Council of Official Medical Associations (CGCOM) and data related to the general population were obtained from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The variables included in the analyses are gender, age, specialty, place of residence and death, and causes of death according to the ICD-10. RESULTS: The annual mean of physician deaths was 918, with an annual crude rate of 4.8 per 1,000 registered physicians. It is confirmed that physicians have a significantly higher suicide rate (average of 1.3%) than the general population (average of 0.8%) (p = 0.003). The comparison of suicide between men and women doctors is significantly higher in women (X2= 53.068, p<0.001). In addition, if we separate by gender, female physicians have a suicide rate 7.5% higher than women from the general population, although the difference is not significant (X2 = 2.614, p = 0.107). CONCLUSIONS: . Suicide is higher among physicians than the general population and affects female physicians significantly more.