“Gender Biases on Digital Health Platforms: Evidence from India”

Dweepobote Brahma

Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur

Abstract: This paper examines gender disparities in engagement on a large-scale digital health platform in a developing country context. Using a novel, high-frequency dataset from India covering over 7,000 physicians between September and December 2024, we explore differences in labour supply, patient engagement, pricing, and platform visibility by the physician’s gender. We find that female physicians have lower labour supply at the extensive margin as measured by the number of patient consultations but not at the intensive margin, as they spend similar total time in consultations as their male counterparts. Female physicians also face lower booking rates and are ranked lower in platform search results. Despite these disadvantages, they charge higher consultation fees, particularly among those with greater experience. Sentiment analysis of patient reviews reveals marginally lower recommendation rates for female physicians, though the overall volume of reviews is similar across genders when controlling for patient volume. Our findings suggest that digital health platforms may reproduce traditional gender-based inequalities even in high-skilled professional contexts. The results raise important questions about the role of algorithmic visibility and bias.