The second woman to complete a medical internship in the United States Air Force, Harriet A. Hall spent twenty years in military service before becoming a prominent voice in skeptical journalism. Operating under the moniker The SkepDoc, she focused her career on applying rigorous scientific scrutiny to alternative medicine, quackery, and widely circulated health myths.
Military Service and Medical Training
Born Harriet Anne Hoag in St. Louis in 1945, she grew up in the View Ridge neighborhood of Seattle. After earning a degree in Spanish at the University of Washington, she graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1970. In 1971, she began an internship at the David Grant USAF Medical Center. Following seven years as a general medical officer in Spain, she pursued aerospace medicine to become a flight surgeon. She achieved the rank of colonel before retiring from Joint Base Lewis–McChord. She was the first female graduate of the Air Force family medicine residency program at Eglin Air Force Base.
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Hall transitioned into skeptical writing after meeting Wallace Sampson at the Skeptic's Toolbox in 2002. She contributed hundreds of articles to the website Science-Based Medicine, where she served as a founding editor. Her work frequently examined the validity of alternative therapies, including acupuncture, homeopathy, and herbal medicine. She authored the 2008 memoir, Women Aren't Supposed to Fly, which detailed her experiences as a female physician and pilot. In 2010, she was elected a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and served on the board of the Institute for Science in Medicine.
Methodology and Public Criticism
Hall was known for her SkepDoc’s Rule, which encouraged individuals to investigate opposing viewpoints before accepting a health claim. She frequently critiqued the marketing of products like Airborne and the medical recommendations of figures such as Daniel G. Amen. In 2015, she produced a ten-part lecture series for the James Randi Educational Foundation explaining the differences between evidence-based and science-based medicine. Her final literary effort, the 2022 children's book There’s No Such Thing as the Tooth Fairy!, reflected her concept of tooth fairy science, a term she used to describe the practice of studying a phenomenon before confirming its existence.
Fast facts
- Born: 1945, St. Louis
- Died: 2023, Puyallup
- Education: University of Washington School of Medicine
- Military Rank: Colonel
- Professional Moniker: The SkepDoc
- Notable Membership: Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Questions readers ask
What was the SkepDoc’s Rule?
It was a heuristic requiring people to locate and evaluate opposing arguments before believing a specific health claim.
What is tooth fairy science?
A term coined by Hall to describe the act of conducting research into a phenomenon before verifying that it actually exists.
