Being matched with a doctor of the same gender in telemedicine may lower patient satisfaction, a new study by researchers at Goa Institute of Management (GIM) has found and has flagged the need for culturally informed and evidence-based approaches in designing virtual healthcare platforms. Studies conducted in the past on in-person healthcare settings have shown that patients tend to report higher satisfaction when matched with doctors of the same gender. Contrary to this, the new study has found that in virtual consultations, gender concordance between physician and patient may reduce patient satisfaction. The findings of the study have been published in the prestigious Journal of Medical Internet Research. According to Nafisa Vaz, Assistant Professor at GIM, the research contributes evidence-based findings to an area that has remained largely unexamined in India's culturally complex healthcare context. While gender concordance has traditionally been associated with trust and ...