MASSDEVICE ON CALL — A new survey of more than 24,000 U.S. physicians found major disparities in income between male and female doctors, although it’s a gap that appears to be narrowing.
Male doctors in 2013 earned about 23.6% more than their female counterparts, taking home an average of $267,000, compared with female doctors’ average take-home of $225,000. That gap was larger in 2010, with male doctors’ salaries about 28% higher than women’s.
Both groups saw significant bumps in pay over the 3-year period, with an 18.7% increase in average pay for men and a 26% increase for women, according to survey results from Medscape’s 2014 Physician Compensation Report.
The extensive survey covered everything from pay by practice setting to general satisfaction with income. Only about half of the doctors surveyed said that they were happy with their compensation. That reaction has changed very little in the last 3 years, according to the survey.
Dermatologists were the most likely to be happy with their pay and plastic surgeons were the least satisfied. Those results didn’t correlate with actual pay, researchers noted. Orthopedists were the highest-paid specialty on the list, but were about in the middle in terms of satisfaction.
More startups tackle Google Glass for docs
The controversial Google Glass camera-mounted wearable glasses just opened for sale to the general public, but there are already a handful of startups that have been working on adapting the technology for us in healthcare.
Read more
A liability conundrum in spinal implants
It’s not always clear where the fault lies when an implanted spinal stimulator, used to help manage chronic pain, leaves a patient with permanent paralysis.
Read more
Can tests tell which patients will benefit from renal denervation?
The once-hailed field of renal denervation suffered a major blow when Medtronic’s (NYSE:MDT) highly anticipated clinical trial found little evidence that the technology was effective in treating hypertension, but a small German study suggests that doctors may be able to track biomarkers to determine which patients are mostly likely to benefit from the procedure.
Read more
Stolen cancer drugs reappear on the E.U. market
European healthcare regulators say they’ve tracked stolen vials of cancer treatment drug Herceptin to the U.K., Finland and Germany, and that the Roche drugs have been tampered with before reappearing on the market.
Read more