Jennifer Cutone, MD: Part of a growing trend of female doctors
October 07, 2004

Growing up in the heart of the Midwest corn belt, Jennifer Cutone, MD, never did let her gender stand in the way of doing what she loved. She could drive a tractor, drywall a house, or even ride a cow in lieu of a horse as good as anyone. So working as a physician in a traditionally male-dominated profession doesn’t worry her at all. Her secret is an innate ability to listen.

"I learned a lot about the subtleties of nature on my grandparents’ farm in Nebraska," she recalls. "If you’re patient enough, and able to listen, you can learn a lot. I approach my practice the same way."

Dr. Cutone, who just joined PrimeCare Internal Medicine in Kennebunk, is part of a growing trend across the nation. Today, 25 percent of doctors are women, up dramatically from 7.6 percent in 1970. According to the American Medical Association, 45 percent of today’s medical students are female and in a little more than five years, women are expected to represent 33 percent of practicing physicians.

Women also tend to gravitate toward residencies in the people-oriented specialties and, according to a Johns Hopkins analysis, “are more likely to engage their patients in discussions of their social and psychologic context and deal more often with feelings and emotions.”

The American Psychiatric Press published a poll of first-year medical students that found that women considered compassion the most important trait they could possess while males tended to select competence.

Dr. Cutone comes by the profession naturally. Her father has been a family physician in Omaha for more than 35 years. Despite his wish that she join his practice, her heart was drawn to New England to be with her husband, Steven Cutone, DO, who joined PrimeCare Internal Medicine in Biddeford, not far from where he graduated from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Jennifer followed a more circuitous route to Maine. A graduate of Creighton University and the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, both in Omaha, she then served her internship and residency in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester. There she met her husband and found a new home in New England, but her Midwest roots still serve as a guide.

"Although I was a middle child, I really was my father’s first ‘son,’" she says. "Not only did he teach me how to build houses and plaster walls, he also taught me that a primary care physician is the ‘captain’ of the ship – the person who organizes the patient’s care. A primary care physician plays an integral role in earning the trust of patients as well as the respect of the sub-specialists."

Dr. Cutone has a special interest in treating individuals with cardiac diseases and hypertension and doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about overcoming the reluctance of men who are too shy to be treated by a female physician.

"I cared for a lot of men in my residency practice," she notes. "Once they trust you, and recognize that your primary interest is their care, all those barriers drop and you establish a feeling of trust.

"Whether you’re a male or female physician, being a doctor takes over your life. But there is nothing like having an opportunity to earn the respect and trust of the patients. I understand why my father has devoted his life to the medical profession. He discovered long ago that it’s an honor to care for people. He’s right. "