Studies find female surgeons' patients less likely to have adverse complications

From TA:

  Jerath said the differences aren’t about technical skill, 
  but about listening to patients and choosing appropriate 
  care. Previous studies point to differences in the way 
  that female physicians communicate and engage with 
  patients.

[...]

  Overall, patients experienced complications 9% of the time 
  when treated by female surgeons and 10.2% of the time when 
  treated by male surgeons.

If "listening to patients and choosing appropriate care" sometimes translates into simpler/less-ambitious surgeries, that could lead to this small difference in complications and possibly worse long-term outcomes vis-à-vis the actual conditions that prompted surgeries included in this, the first mentioned, study.

And:

  Another study published in JAMA Surgery on Wednesday 
  looked at more than 100,000 patients in Sweden who’d had 
  surgery to remove their gallbladders.  Female surgeons had 
  longer operation times, but their patients had shorter 
  hospital stays and less invasive surgeries.
  
  Male surgeons spent a mean of eight minutes less per 
  operation compared with women, even after matching similar 
  patients, surgeries and hospitals. Complications including 
  bleeding, perforations of the intestine or bowel, bile 
  duct lesions, leakage and abscesses occurred nearly 30% 
  more often for male surgeons.

What if more challenging gallbladder surgeries or gallbladder removals for people with more comorbidities were more likely to be undertaken by male surgeons or those patients were more likely to be referred to 'senior' surgeons who may be disproportionately male? Or... 100k gallbladder removals in a small country like Sweden is a lot of gallbladder removals. What if, over the years during which the surgeries look at by this 2nd study, two things happened: the share of female surgeons increased and there were also advances in technique that significantly reduced complications for gallbladder removal surgeries in Sweden?

I am not doubting this study but I wonder how likely it would have been for the study to be published if "females" was replaced by "males" (assuming the opposite result was true). Probably a fairly low probability indeed. And if so, then the entire body of literature may give a bit of a biased view. And given this, I am wondering how many unconscious biases will enter into the minds of researchers given that most people must be aware of such a bias.

Again, this study might indeed be true, but I am sure the methodologies of studies that confirm the diversity policies of academia are less likely to be stronlgy scrutinized. While this doesn't invalidate anything, it does make it possible for systematic biases to creep into the research field.

Non-paywall/archived copy: https://archive.li/9i7be