Wallace Sampson

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Wallace Sampson
Born(1930-03-29)March 29, 1930
Hollywood, California
DiedMay 25, 2015(2015-05-25) (aged 85)
Los Altos, California
NationalityAmerican

Wallace Sampson (March 29, 1930 – May 25, 2015),

consumer advocate against alternative medicine and other fraud schemes.[3][4][5][6][7] 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,[4][5] and a member of the faculty at the Skeptic's Toolbox
1998–2008.

Scientific skepticism

Wallace Sampson was an international expert in exposing pseudoscience-based fraudulent schemes in medicine and other fields, such as

integrative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and chiropractic. He publicized the expression "antiscience" to refer to the basis of belief in alternative medicine in his title for a peer-reviewed paper published by the New York Academy of Sciences"Antiscience Trends in the Rise of the 'Alternative Medicine' Movement".[3] He taught the Stanford University School of Medicine Alternative Medicine course regarding "unscientific medical systems and aberrant medical claims".[4][5] The San Francisco Chronicle
quotes him as saying "We've looked into most of the practices and, biochemically or physically, their supposed effects lie somewhere between highly improbable and impossible."

He was a founding editor of the

Saturday Evening Post.[4][5] He was also a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).[8] In April 2011 the executive council of CSI selected Sampson for inclusion in the CSI Pantheon of Skeptics. The Pantheon of Skeptics was created by CSI to remember the legacy of deceased fellows of CSI and their contributions to the cause of scientific skepticism.[9]

He was an editor of the scientific skepticism website Science-Based Medicine.[2]

In a eulogy for Sampson, friend

Laetrile to treat cancer. He researched the topic and found that it was a bogus claim.[10]

References

  1. San Jose Mercury News
    . May 30, 2015. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Editors". sciencebasedmedicine.org. Science Based Medicine. 18 August 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b Antiscience Trends in the Rise of the 'Alternative Medicine' Movement, Wallace Sampson, 17 DEC 2006, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, [1]
  4. ^ a b c d SFGate: Healthy Doubts, Wallace Sampson – Alternative medicine doesn't exist and acupuncture is useless, he says, Reyhan Harmanci, SF Chronicle, August 31, 2006, [2]
  5. ^
    Public Broadcasting System, [3]
  6. ^ Wallace Sampson, Science Based Medicine
  7. ^ Traditional Medicine and Pseudoscience in China: A Report of the Second CSICOP Delegation, Special Report, Barry L. Beyerstein and Wallace Sampson, Center for Inquiry, Volume 20.4, July / August 1996
  8. ^ "CSI Fellows and Staff". Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  9. ^ "The Pantheon of Skeptics". CSI. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  10. ^ Hall, Harriet (June 2015). "Physician Wallace Sampson, Expert on False Medical Claims, Dies at Eighty-Five". CSI. Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved June 2, 2015.