168: Battling False Science: How Physicians Can Help Patients Discover the Truth with Dr. Mark Hoofnagle

“Real experts are wrong and will admit that they’re wrong. Actually one of the ways that you can identify an expert is, you can search them admitting to being wrong at some point in time. Because, you know, people who are never wrong aren’t experts, they’re jerks.” - Dr. Mark Hoofnagle 

In episode 168, Master Certified Coach Jill Farmer welcomes Dr. Mark Hoofnagle to the podcast. Dr. Hoofnagle is assistant professor of surgery in the section of Acute Critical Care Surgery at the Washington University in St Louis. He has been writing about critical thinking and science denialism since 2007. In this episode, he explains the many ways that the public is duped by misinformation, why people are so susceptible to misinformation and what, as doctors, we can do when our patients believe something other than the correct science. He also gives us tips for meaningful communication with patients or anyone in our lives who may be misinformed.

Mark Hoofnagle MD/PhD trained at University of Virginia School of Medicine for medical school, University of Maryland Medical Center for General Surgery and University of Pennsylvania for Trauma and critical care and is now assistant professor of surgery in the section of Acute Critical Care Surgery at the Washington University in St Louis. He researches Deep Venous Thrombosis in trauma and gun violence at Washington University, and has written about critical thinking and denialism since 2007. His essay on “What is Denialism” on Scienceblogs from 2007 created framework for understanding the public dissemination of anti-science narratives, has been cited in the International Journal of Public Health and Nature, and provides context for understanding current disinformation and misinformation campaigns.

 

You can read his essay here and you can follow him on Twitter here

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