Harriet Hall

Harriet A. Hall (born July 2, 1945) is a U.S. retired family physician, former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon and skeptic who writes about alternative medicine and quackery for Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer.

Career
Hall received her B.A. and M.D. from the University of Washington. She was only the second woman to do her internship in the Air Force and was the first female graduate of the Air Force family to practice residency at Eglin Air Force Base.

Hall says she was a "passive skeptic" for quite some time, only reading the literature and attending the various meetings. She met Wallace Sampson at the Skeptic's Toolbox workshop in Oregon. He convinced her to write an article for the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine testing so-called "Vitamin O" products she had seen advertised in the mail. She then began writing articles for Skeptical Inquirer. When she spoke to Michael Shermer at The Amazing Meeting about the book The God Code, he encouraged her to write a review of it for Skeptic Magazine. She wrote other articles for that publication, and since late 2006 she has had a regular column in it titled The SkepDoc. This is also the name of her web site. Before the Toolbox, "I had not done any writing... one thing led to another and now I'm on the faculty of the Skeptic's Toolbox."

She has been an outspoken critic of alternative medicine, often questioning its effectiveness. "If it were shown to be truly effective, it would be part of regular medicine." In her work she emphasizes the importance of following the scientific evidence for or against any remedy. When asked about the anti-cold remedy Airborne she said, "There's more evidence for chicken soup than for Airborne. In the absence of any credible double-blind studies to support the claims for Airborne, I'll stick to hand washing." She has also criticized the U.S. Army for its use of acupuncture, saying "the idea that putting needles in somebody's ear is going to substitute for things like morphine is just ridiculous."

She has publicly criticized the recommendations and products of Daniel G. Amen in an article at Quackwatch and elsewhere, saying "Amen's recommendations defy science, common sense and logic." She has also criticized many other proponents of alternative therapies, including Andrew Weil.

She is an advisor to Quackwatch and an Associate Editor of the Science-Based Medicine blog.

She has spoken at the Science-Based Medicine Conference and The Amazing Meeting 7, among other venues in 2009. She has been interviewed on podcasts such as The Reality Check, Skepticality and The Skeptic Zone.

In 2008 she published an autobiography focusing on her experiences as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force (she retired as a full colonel). As a female physician, Air Force officer, pilot and flight surgeon she was a minority in several respects, and encountered prejudice. The title of the book refers to an incident after her first solo flight when an airport official told her, "Didn't anybody ever tell you women aren't supposed to fly?"

Starting in the January 2010 issue, Hall had a regular 250-word column in O, The Oprah Magazine debunking common health myths. Her relationship with the magazine was rocky, and the column ended in the June 2010 issue. She has since said about this experience that "The editor who hired me was replaced by a less sympathetic one (...). They restricted me to a measly 200 words and wanted to tell me exactly what to write about and what to say. I couldn’t even recognize the final edited version as my writing."

Hall is on the board and a founding member of the recently (2009) formed "Institute for Science in Medicine". In 2010 Hall was elected a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

On August 21, 2010 Hall was honored with an award recognizing her contributions in the skeptical field, from The IIG during its 10th Anniversary Gala.

Hall also spoke at the 6th World Skeptic Congress in Berlin, "Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fairy Tale Science and Placebo Medicine".

Hall spoke at both a workshop called "Dr. Google" and a panel called "The Truth About Alternative Medicine" together with Steven Novella, David Gorski, and Rachael Dunlop at The Amazing Meeting 2012. The workshop dealt with "How to find reliable health information online and elsewhere, and skeptically evaluate the information you find."

In 2015 she published a YouTube lecture series titled "Science Based Medicine", commissioned by the James Randi Educational Foundation. It is presented as a course consisting of 10 lectures regarding the differences between Science-Based and Evidence-Based Medicine, CAM, Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Herbal Medicine, Energy Medicine, Miscellaneous “Alternatives”, Pitfalls in Research, and Science-Based Medicine in the Media and Politics. Beginning with the 2018 September/October (Vol 42.5) issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine Hall will publish a regular column called "Reality Is the Best Medicine".

Personal life
She is married, and resides in Puyallup, Washington, with her husband Kirk (who is also retired from the Air Force). She has two grown daughters.

Selected publications
Highlights and publications mentioned in this article: