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In memorium: Harriet Hall (1945-2023) (for those who missed this on Consumer Health Digest
Date: 2023-01-17 18:17

Beginning with her first published article in 2003, Harriet “SkepDoc” Hall, M.D., gained a devoted following of scientists, health professionals, and consumers around the world who treasured her clarity, wisdom, wit, intellectual humility, and humanity. Her many writings, lectures, and other media appearances addressed a wide range of topics including pseudoscience, questionable health claims, quackery, “alternative” medicine, science-based medicine, controversial medical practices, and critical thinking. She was a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, an editorial board member and contributing editor of Skeptical Inquirer, a contributing editor of Skeptic, an advisor to the Quackwatch network, an overseas friend of Australia-based Friends of Science in Medicine, and an editorial review board member for the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database.

On January 12, her husband Kirk Hall announced https://www.facebook.com/harriet.hall.52 on her Facebook page:

I know Harriet’s work was followed and admired by many of you. It is with great sadness that I must tell you my beloved wife passed away quietly and unexpectedly in her sleep last night. At this moment, she would probably simply ask you to have a kind thought for her, be kind to each other and continue to support her belief in the truth. Please take care.

Many of Dr. Hall’s activities are cataloged on her website, skepdoc.info https://www.skepdoc.info/, where her final articles will be posted over the next few days. The site’s editorial team announced efforts will be made to make sure her work remains available.

Most of her columns, articles, and book reviews, were published:

Weekly since January 2008 in the Science-Based Medicine blog https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/author/harriet-hall/, where she was one of five founding editors
in Skeptical Inquirer https://skepticalinquirer.org/s/?post_types=post&_sft_authors=harriet-hall magazine, including her “Reality Is the Best Medicine” columns published since the September/October 2018 issue
skepticalinquirer.org http://skepticalinquirer.org/, where her monthly SkepDoc’s Corner https://skepticalinquirer.org/category/skepdocs-corner/ columns have been published since September 2016, including some that were translated into Spanish by Alejandro Borgo of the Center for Inquiry, Argentina
in Skeptic https://www.skeptic.com/ magazine, including her column “The SkepDoc,” published in each issue since 2006
in eSkeptic https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/, where she was a frequent contributor
at Quackwatch https://quackwatch.org/?s&_sft_authors=harriet-hall-md, where she served as a medical advisor
From January through June of 2010, she wrote a brief column called “The Health Inspector” in O, The Oprah Magazine. In her September 7, 2010 post at Science-Based Medicine https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/write-for-oprah-wrong-for-me/, she described how the magazine’s editors made it a “bizarre, frustrating experience” for her, thwarting her efforts to “make sure that at least my one little corner of the magazine was scientifically rigorous.”

In 2015, the James Randi Educational Foundation https://web.randi.org/educational-modules.html released a free, 10-part video series of lectures by Dr. Hall on “Science-Based Medicine” https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8MfjLNsf_miVcNu6eJMNigAMNwQkk_B9 along with a 26-page downloadable course guide https://web.randi.org/uploads/3/7/3/7/37377621/course_guide.pdf

Her 2008 book, Women Aren’t Supposed to Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon https://smile.amazon.com/Women-Arent-Supposed-Fly-Memoirs/dp/0595499589/ref=monarch_sidesheet describes how she became a pilot and helped bring about equality for women in the U.S. Air Force. She retired in 1989 as a full colonel after serving for 20 years in the Air Force. In addition to practicing family medicine and flight medicine, she held administrative positions including Chief of Aerospace Medicine and Director of Base Medical Services. Additional details about her Air Force career are provided at Science-Based Medicine https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/in-memoriam-dr-harriet-hall/

She co-authored the ninth edition of the college textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions (2013). She was disappointed by its exorbitant price, typical of textbooks, and its unavailability in libraries put it out of reach of many of her readers. An affordable Kindle version https://smile.amazon.com/Consumer-Health-Guide-Intelligent-Decisions-ebook/dp/B07P7D6SQ5/ref=monarch_sidesheet of the book was made available in 2019.

Last year, the children’s book, There’s No Such Thing as the Tooth Fairy! https://smile.amazon.com/Theres-Such-Thing-Tooth-Fairy/dp/1667852442/ref=monarch_sidesheet by Dr. Hall and Kevin Howell, was published. It was based on a fable https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/announcing-a-new-childrens-book-that-promotes-critical-thinking/ about the Tooth Fairy at the end of one of Dr. Hall’s most popular articles, Teaching pigs to sing: An experiment in bringing critical thinking to the masses https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2006/05/22164608/p36.pdf?_ga=2.164812223.1895642999.1659048583-1858339745.1649877068, published in the May/June 2006 issue of Skeptical Inquirer. Howell adapted the fable for the book and provided illustrations.

Dr. Hall was much admired by participants in Quackwatch’s Health Fraud Discussion List https://lists.quackwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/healthfraud_lists.quackwatch.org where she contributed to more than 2,000 discussion threads. In 2005, a thread was started “In Praise of Dr. Hall.” Appreciation of her writings was a recurring theme on the list.

Dr. Hall was a popular speaker at The Amazing Meeting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Meeting (James Randi Educational Foundation), the Trottier Public Science Symposium at McGill University https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/events-0/trottier-symposium, Skeptic’s Toolbox workshops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeptic%27s_Toolbox, the World Skeptic Congress, CSICON https://web.archive.org/web/20171018012635/https://csiconference.org/ (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry), the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism https://necss.org/about/, the Australian Skeptics National Convention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajNqpUhauyk&ab_channel=VictorianSkeptics, LogiCal, and other conferences.

The January 15 Skeptic Zone (Australia) podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCfNUhfX-_c paid tribute to Dr. Hall. The podcast includes an interview with her by host Richard Saunders from 2007.

Dr. Hall provided this rationale <https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/for-discussion-should-i-only-write-about-fake-stuff-if-it-is-well-known/> for sometimes writing about pseudoscientific nonsense even when it isn’t well-known: “My SkepDoc’s Rule is ‘before you believe a claim, find out who disagrees with it and why.’ And you can’t do that if no one has bothered to disagree with it yet.”