Abstract 16160: Female Cardiologists Are More Likely to Refer Patients With Coronary Heart Disease to Cardiac Rehabilitation Than Male Cardiologists

BackgroundCardiac rehabilitation (CR) improves quality of life and survival in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). However, CR is often underutilized amongst patients with CHD, which may be attributed to a low CR referral (CRR) rate. This study evaluated the association between physician gender and CRR rates for patients with CHD.MethodsObservational study of prospectively collected data on patients hospitalized with acute coronary syndrome. Electronic Medical Record charts were reviewed to assess CRR rates between male and female cardiologists.ResultsA cohort of 230 patients were evaluated; 164 males and 66 females; 126 Whites, 82 Hispanics, 12 Asians, 6 African Americans, and 4 classified as other. Of the 230 patients, 91.7% were seen by male cardiologists and 8.3% by female cardiologists. The overall CRR rate at time of discharge for the cohort was 21.7%. Female cardiologists had a CRR rate of 57.9% while male cardiologists had a CRR rate of 18.4% (p-value