Are Physicians Less Likely Than Other People to Develop Sepsis?

Physicians' risk for adverse health outcomes is thought to differ from that of the general population. On the one hand, physicians seem to have greater awareness of disease symptoms and easier access to medical care. On the other hand, many physicians work long hours, ignore their own symptoms of infection, work when they are sick, and treat themselves rather than seek help from colleagues.

To assess whether physicians and nonphysicians differ in their incidence of severe sepsis and sepsis-related mortality, researchers analyzed Taiwan's national health insurance data from 2000 to 2008 for about 30,000 physicians and the same number of socioeconomically and demographically matched people with no medical education. The overall incidence densi…