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Type of site | Blog |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | New England Skeptical Society |
| Key people | Steven Novella, David Gorski |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | January 1, 2008 [1] |
Science-Based Medicine is a website and blog with articles covering issues in science and medicine, especially medical scams and practices. [2] Founded in 2008, it is owned and operated by the New England Skeptical Society, [3] and run by Steven Novella and David Gorski. [4]
Started as a skeptical medical blog with five writers, Science-Based Medicine (SBM) launched on January 1, 2008. [5] Steven Novella, [2] [6] Harriet Hall, [7] [8] and David Gorski were founding editors, along with Mark Crislip [9] and Kimball Atwood. [10] [11]
Science-Based Medicine is owned and operated by the New England Skeptical Society (NESS), [3] where Novella, a clinical neurologist at Yale University [2] and the executive editor of SBM, has served as president since its inception. Gorski, a surgical oncologist at Wayne State University, is the managing editor for SBM. [12] [13] [14]
The blog was affiliated with the former Society for Science-Based Medicine (SfSBM), [15] an opinionated education and advocacy group, [16] that registered in 2014 [17] as a Florida nonprofit corporation [16] [18] led by Mark Crislip. [19] The SfSBM was dissolved in 2020, with the Center for Inquiry receiving its funds as a donation and considered by the SfSBM's board to continue its work, [3] following a period of time where SfSBM had merged with SBM. [20]
Other key contributors have included writer Paul Ingraham (2010–2016) and Wallace Sampson, an editor and regular contributor to SBM until his death in 2017. [21]
Science-Based Medicine is a website in blog format that examines controversies in science and medicine, [22] especially medical scams and practices. [2] SBM is known for persistently challenging alternative medicine [23] [24] [9] and for opposing university funding from advocates of integrative medicine. [25] David Freedman, writing for The Atlantic in 2011, described SBM as "an influential blog that has tirelessly gone after alternative medicine." [23]
Editorial staff say that the best medicine is based on scientific principles, includes prior plausibility, and is not based on evidence alone. [21] Gorski, Novella, and Atwood have argued that science-based medicine differs in focus from evidence-based medicine [26] [11] and stress that randomized clinical trials should only be conducted when warranted by ample preclinical evidence to justify the effort, time, and expenses involved. [26] For a science-based approach, Novella supports minimizing or eliminating research on implausible treatments, and points out that decades are often required for clinical research to become supported by rigorous, conclusive trials, during which time decisions must be made, preferably guided by and screened by plausibility criteria. [19]
In a systematic survey of web sites providing material on complementary and alternative medicine from 2018, medical education researcher Annie Chen and colleagues listed Science-Based Medicine alongside WebMD as an example of an "information service" providing articles on health and illness. [27]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Science-Based Medicine collected and debunked misinformation that had spread through social media, such as the false claim that COVID-19 vaccines could cause infertility. [28]
On June 15, 2021, [29] Science-Based Medicine published a book review of Abigail Shrier's Irreversible Damage written by founding editor Harriet Hall. [30] In her review, Hall wrote that Shrier's book had raised legitimate concerns about the science surrounding drug treatments for gender dysphoria in children and that there was a lack of quality scientific studies on the subject. [30] Several days after the review was published, Novella and Gorski replaced the review with a retraction notice and responded with a review of their own, the first of six SBM posts rejecting Shrier's claims and addressing the retraction. [4] [31]
Skeptic magazine republished Hall's review, [32] and she remained one of three editors at SBM along with Novella and Gorski after the retraction until her death in 2023. [4] [33]
In 2014, Novella was sued by Edward Tobinick, [16] a doctor claiming to treat neurological conditions, over two blog posts on Science-Based Medicine critical of off-label use of the drug Etanercept by Tobinick's medical clinic. [34] Novella had said that it was "unethical for physicians to practice outside of their area of competence and expertise". The lawsuit, filed by Tobinick against Novella, the Society for Science-Based Medicine, Inc., and SGU Productions, LLC was resolved after the court ruled in favor of the defendants. [35]
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism, sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refers to the examination of claims and theories that appear to be beyond mainstream science, rather than the routine discussions and challenges among scientists. Scientific skepticism differs from philosophical skepticism, which questions humans' ability to claim any knowledge about the nature of the world and how they perceive it, and the similar but distinct methodological skepticism, which is a systematic process of being skeptical about the truth of one's beliefs.
Joel Fuhrman is an American celebrity doctor who advocates a plant-based diet termed the "nutritarian" diet which emphasizes nutrient-dense foods. His practice is based on his nutrition-based approach to obesity and chronic disease, as well as promoting his products and books. He has written books promoting his dietary approaches including the bestsellers Eat to Live, Super Immunity, The Eat to Live Cookbook, The End of Dieting (2016) and The End of Heart Disease (2016). He sells a related line of nutrition-related products.
Gary Michael Null is an American talk radio host and author who advocates pseudoscientific alternative medicine and produces a line of questionable dietary supplements.
The New England Skeptical Society (NESS) is an American organization dedicated to promoting science and reason. It was founded in January 1996 as the Connecticut Skeptical Society, by Steven Novella, Perry DeAngelis and Bob Novella. The group later joined with the Skeptical Inquirers of New England (SINE) and the New Hampshire Skeptical Resource to form the New England Skeptical Society.
Steven Paul Novella is an American clinical neurologist and associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine. Novella is best known for his involvement in the skeptical movement as a host of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast and as the president of the New England Skeptical Society. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (SGU) is an American weekly skeptical podcast hosted by Steven Novella, MD, along with a panel of contributors. The official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society, it was named to evoke The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The show features discussions of recent scientific developments in layman's terms, and interviews authors, people in the area of science, and other famous skeptics. The SGU podcast includes discussions of myths, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, the paranormal, and other forms of superstition, from the point of view of scientific skepticism.
The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics is a medical journal of chiropractic, the alternative medicine practice based in pseudoscientific ideas. It is published by Mosby on behalf of the American Chiropractic Association, of which it is an official journal.
Functional medicine (FM) is a form of alternative medicine that encompasses a number of unproven and disproven methods and treatments. It has been described as pseudoscience, quackery, and at its essence a rebranding of complementary and alternative medicine. In the United States, FM practices have been ruled ineligible for course credits by the American Academy of Family Physicians because of concerns they may be harmful.
Harriet A. Hall was an American family physician, U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, author, science communicator, and skeptic. She wrote about alternative medicine and quackery for the magazines Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer and was a regular contributor and founding editor of Science-Based Medicine. She wrote under her own name or used the pseudonym "The SkepDoc". After retiring as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Hall was a frequent speaker at science and skepticism related conventions in the US and around the world.
Wallace Sampson, also known as Wally, was an American medical doctor and consumer advocate against alternative medicine and other fraud schemes. He was an authority in numerous medical fields, including oncology, hematology, and pathology. He was Emeritus Professor of Clinical Medicine at Stanford University. He was the former Head of Medical Oncology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and a member of the faculty at the Skeptic's Toolbox 1998–2008.
David Henry Gorski is an American surgical oncologist and professor of surgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He specializes in breast cancer surgery at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Gorski is an outspoken skeptic and critic of alternative medicine and the anti-vaccination movement. He writes as Orac at Respectful Insolence and as himself at Science-Based Medicine, where he is the managing editor.
Natural News is a far-right, anti-vaccination conspiracy theory and fake news website known for promoting alternative medicine, pseudoscience, disinformation, and far-right extremism. The website began publishing articles in 2008 and is based in the United States.
Kimball C. Atwood IV is an American medical doctor and researcher from Newton, Massachusetts. He is retired as an assistant clinical professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and anesthesiologist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
Mark Alden Crislip is an infectious disease doctor in Portland, Oregon and former chief of infectious diseases at Legacy Health hospital system. Crislip has generated three podcasts, QuackCast, PusCast, and Gobbet o' Pus. A writer for medicine-related blogs, he has compiled his blog posts into several books. He co-founded the Society for Science-Based Medicine and served as president from 2013 to 2019.
Britt Marie Hermes is an American former naturopathic doctor who became a critic of naturopathy and alternative medicine. She is the author of a blog, Naturopathic Diaries, where she writes about being trained and having practiced as a licensed naturopath and about the problems with naturopaths as medical practitioners.
Explore: The Journal of Science & Healing is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes papers on alternative medicine six times per year. It was established in 2005 and is published by Elsevier. The executive editor is faith healing advocate Larry Dossey, and the co-editors-in-chief are hypnotherapist, acupuncturist, and herbalist Benjamin Kligler, an associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and parapsychologist Dean Radin. The journal has been described as a "sham masquerading as a real scientific journal" which publishes "truly ridiculous studies", such as Masaru Emoto's claimed demonstration of the effect of "distant intention" on water crystal formation.
ASEA is a privately owned international direct selling and multi-level marketing company founded in 2007 and headquartered in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Vinayak K. Prasad is an American hematologist-oncologist and health researcher. He is a professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is the author of the books Ending Medical Reversal (2015) and Malignant (2020).
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters is a 2020 book by Abigail Shrier, published by Regnery Publishing, which endorses the controversial concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD). ROGD is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by any major professional institution nor is it backed by credible scientific evidence.
records from the State of Florida confirming SfSBM as legally a non-for-profit corporation
As of 6/19 the Society is undergoing reorganization with a merger with Science-Based Medicine.
says Steven Novella, a clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and executive editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine, which looks at controversies in science and medicine.
Novella is a highly respected Yale neurologist, and the editor of Science-Based Medicine, an influential blog that has tirelessly gone after alternative medicine.