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A previous systematic review of patients' views on how physicians dress included few U.S. studies, with just one study of hospital physicians' attire (NEJM JW Hosp Med May 2015 and BMJ Open 2015; 5:e006578). In this study, investigators surveyed >6000 U.S. inpatients and outpatients and received more than 4000 responses at 10 geographically diverse academic institutions. Respondents viewed photographs of one male and one female physician in seven different dress styles: casual, casual and white coat, scrubs, scrubs and white coat, formal, formal and white coat, and business suit. They answered 22 questions about their reactions to each photo.
Overall, patients preferred to see their physicians dressed formally with white coats. They saw thes…