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Laura Scherer

@ldscherer

Associate prof in Colorado. Research spans shared decision making, risk communication, health misinformation and science skepticism. Open science advocate

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06.12.2023
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Latest posts by Laura Scherer @ldscherer

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Women’s screening preferences shift after being informed about the 2024 USPSTF breast cancer screening guideline In 2024 the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) revised its breast cancer screening (BCS) guidelines to recommend that all women scr…

Women’s screening preferences shift after being informed about the 2024 USPSTF breast cancer screening guideline - new paper by @tamarparmet.bsky.social @ldscherer.bsky.social @kirstenmccaffery.bsky.social me & others
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073839912600114X?dgcid=coauthor

12.03.2026 01:41 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Letters www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/... re our 2024 paper on Mammography Screening Preferences Among Women in Their 40s www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
@ldscherer.bsky.social
Reducing barriers to desired care while respecting patient autonomy to make informed decisions should be dual goals.

15.07.2025 00:18 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

aww, thanks Chris!

18.07.2025 19:34 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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A billion-dollar donation: estimating the cost of researchers’ time spent on peer review - Research Integrity and Peer Review Background The amount and value of researchers’ peer review work is critical for academia and journal publishing. However, this labor is under-recognized, its magnitude is unknown, and alternative way...

📚 A billion-dollar donation: estimating the cost of researchers’ time spent on peer review researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

18.06.2025 08:09 👍 9 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
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Psychological inoculation is a very popular intervention against online misinfo, but it hasn't been tested using real-world outcomes in realistic scenarios.

In a new paper just published in PNAS Nexus, this is what we did: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Short version: It didn't really work.

05.06.2025 19:33 👍 202 🔁 68 💬 5 📌 3
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The Price of Remission When I was diagnosed with cancer, I set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. I’ve covered high drug prices as a reporter for years. What I discovered shocked ...

I have written many healthcare stories, but never before have I written about my own health. I decided to do so after learning one of my drugs costs nearly $1,000 a pill and just 25 cents to make. What I found was an incredible story of discovery and exploitation. www.propublica.org/article/revl...

08.05.2025 13:51 👍 1610 🔁 688 💬 80 📌 55

In a faculty meeting yesterday I learned that the cost of hospital materials has already gone up due to Trump China tariffs.

02.05.2025 14:58 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Earlier today, AAAS CEO Sudip Parikh testified as a bipartisan witness before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, warning that without immediate action, the U.S. runs the risk of losing its position as a global leader in biomedical research and innovation.

30.04.2025 22:20 👍 466 🔁 169 💬 19 📌 11
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NIH insiders: Trump is ‘dismantling and destroying everything’ After just 100 days, agency scientists say U.S. health institutes are demoralized and have lost essential staff and funding

Francis Collins: “Reckless decisions will disrupt a noble institution with a stunningly positive track record, drive young scientists to leave the country, and damage the future health of the nation." www.science.org/content/arti...

01.05.2025 02:24 👍 443 🔁 185 💬 5 📌 9
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Here's some good news!

The file drawer problem may have diminished in recent years, at least in social science survey experiments

"This suggests increased recognition of the importance of null results."

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

27.04.2025 00:21 👍 75 🔁 14 💬 1 📌 0

This was an educational read on what’s being planned for NIH cuts and our chance to stop it

29.04.2025 03:03 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

18.04.2025 22:40 👍 3081 🔁 1371 💬 142 📌 64

I’m so sorry to hear this Chris 🙁

19.04.2025 20:14 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I’m so sorry Lisa. This is so disappointing and stupid.

19.04.2025 19:59 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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How Do We ‘Trust the Science’ in an Age of Misinformation? Health Science Radio episode features experts weighing in on the spread of misinformation about science and possible strategies for addressing the problem.

This was a super fun conversation about health misinformation and trust in science. We only touched the tip of the iceberg, but give it a listen and tell me what you think!
news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories...

06.04.2025 16:06 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This cut is especially ironic because SDM aligns with many of RFK Jr's purported values:
-advocating for patient autonomy
-championing full disclosure
-supporting individualized decision-making
They either don't actually value these things or don't know what they're cutting

04.04.2025 17:25 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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What’s Lost: Trump Whacks Tiny Agency That Works To Make the Nation's Health Care Safer - KFF Health News The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has helped improve health care safety in a country where thousands die of medical errors each year. It was effectively dissolved Tuesday.

I'm personally really sad to see AHRQ go. They had a small but mighty team trying to improve shared decision making in medicine, and now all those people are gone.
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

04.04.2025 17:25 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 1

Some people were angry that scientists can't tell which early stage cancers will grow and cause harm: "You're scientists and doctors, and you don't know this yet?" Others were anxious learning that screening has harms: "Just like telling children, ‘Hey, PS, there’s no Santa Claus"

03.04.2025 23:53 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Evaluation of how US women react to a decision aid informing them of the harms and benefits of mammography: a qualitative study Objectives To evaluate how women react to a decision aid (DA) informing them of the harms and benefits of mammography, including overdiagnosis. Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer affe...

Our latest study in BMJ Open examined how women react to learning about overdiagnosis in breast cancer screening. We found that preexisting beliefs about cancer made it hard for some women to comprehend and accept overdiagnosis bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/3/e087997

03.04.2025 23:53 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
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Trump Science Funding Cuts May Hurt Economy, Experts Say Since World War II, U.S. research funding has led to discoveries that fueled economic gains. Now cutbacks are seen as putting that legacy in jeopardy.

Economists are baffled as to why the US is gutting its unmatched scientific enterprise:

“This is really killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”

“It’s (science) like a machine, you put a dollar in and you get $5 back.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/b...

31.03.2025 17:57 👍 35 🔁 12 💬 4 📌 5
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The first randomized trial comparing fecal occult blood testing (every other year) testing and (one-time) colonoscopy. No significant difference in colon cancer mortality among >56,000 participants
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... @thelancet.bsky.social

29.03.2025 17:03 👍 671 🔁 108 💬 45 📌 11
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UPDATE: RECOVER Long COVID pathobiology grants restored - The Sick Times Long COVID research grants from the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER program will be restored following news stories about their abrupt cancellations and advocacy to restore the funding, accord...

Earlier this week, The Regime suddenly axed grants related to LongCOVID. Massive backlash from advocates ensued. And today, the NIH reversed course and reinstated at least some of this grant funding. Keep making noise. Keep taking up space. Keep shouting the truth. thesicktimes.org/2025/03/28/u...

28.03.2025 21:54 👍 342 🔁 90 💬 4 📌 1
SCiMaP

Across the US, cuts to federal funding for health research are projected to cause losses of $16 billion and 68,500 jobs. How will YOUR county and State be affected? See scienceimpacts.org

28.03.2025 04:14 👍 15 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 1
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The Chaos of NIH Cuts Has Left Early-Career Scientists Scrambling As graduate programs lose spots and labs face shutdowns following Trump administration cuts to science funding, the path to a science career for students and researchers just got a whole lot harder.

This is what breaks my heart. These young people who are so eager and full of promise and who are the next generation of Nobel Prize winners, scientists inventors, teachers. #Trump and #Musk have destroyed it all. www.wired.com/story/the-ch...

24.03.2025 23:23 👍 384 🔁 126 💬 13 📌 9
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From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA

22.03.2025 10:44 👍 32106 🔁 8510 💬 710 📌 294
Evaluation of how US women react to a decision aid informing them of the harms and benefits of mammography: a qualitative study Objectives To evaluate how women react to a decision aid (DA) informing them of the harms and benefits of mammography, including overdiagnosis. Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women. In efforts to reduce mortality, mammography has been widely accepted as an effective method of early detection. However, there is a balance between the known harms and benefits of breast cancer screening. Overdiagnosis is the detection of a cancer that would never cause harm over the lifetime. Comprehension and acceptance of overdiagnosis can be difficult for some people. Design Qualitative study using a semistructured interview protocol. Data were analysed in Atlas.Ti and the framework method was used to identify themes. Setting Telephone interviews with participants living in the USA. Participants 30 female individuals aged 39–49, selected from a nationally representative US sample of individuals who had completed a survey <2 weeks prior, during which they viewed a DA describing the main harms and benefits of breast cancer screening. Results Six major themes were identified: (1) overdiagnosis and false positives were often conflated, (2) previous experience and the influence of doctors and family supersedes new information, (3) beliefs about cancer dominate acceptance and comprehension of overdiagnosis, (4) emotional reactions to the novelty of overdiagnosis, (5) reactions to screening benefits—“I’ll be the one”, and (6) people reported the DA is credible, but they remained sceptical and performed their own research. Conclusion This study provides insights into the challenges of communicating about the harms of breast cancer screening, particularly overdiagnosis. While it is critical to honestly communicate with patients about the harms of breast cancer screening, it is also important to consider the emotional impact of conveying such information. Data are available in a public, open access repository. Data are available on the Open Science Framework, [dataset] Scherer L, Suresh K, Mosley B, Frempong J. Data from: R37 Ipsos breast cancer screening survey and qualitative interviews. Open Science Framework, March 4, 2022. <https://osf.io/y8stc/>

New paper

Evaluation of how US women react to a decision aid informing them of the harms and benefits of mammography:
a qualitative study
by Brad Morse, @ldscherer.bsky.social, @kirstenmccaffery.bsky.social, me and an illustrious co-author team!

Just out in BMJ Open
bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/3...

20.03.2025 00:02 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1

This, if true, is the exact opposite of efficiency.

17.03.2025 22:46 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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“You don't need a permit to protest in response to breaking news and you don't need a permit to march in the streets or along sidewalks, as long as you're not obstructing traffic or access to buildings.
When you are lawfully present in any public space, you have the right to photograph anything in plain view, including federal buildings and the police.If you believe your rights have been violated, when you can, write down everything you remember, get contact information for witnesses, and take photographs of any injuries.If you get stopped by the police, ask if you're free to go. If they say yes, calmly walk away.If you get arrested, you have a right to ask why. Otherwise, say you wish to remain silent and ask for a lawyer immediately. Don't sign, say or agree to anything without a lawyer present.If you get stopped by a member of the military or any law enforcement office at a protest, you have the right to remain silent or to tell them that you’ll only answer questions in the presence of an attorney — no matter your citizenship or immigration status.”

Black graphic with text “You don't need a permit to protest in response to breaking news and you don't need a permit to march in the streets or along sidewalks, as long as you're not obstructing traffic or access to buildings. When you are lawfully present in any public space, you have the right to photograph anything in plain view, including federal buildings and the police.If you believe your rights have been violated, when you can, write down everything you remember, get contact information for witnesses, and take photographs of any injuries.If you get stopped by the police, ask if you're free to go. If they say yes, calmly walk away.If you get arrested, you have a right to ask why. Otherwise, say you wish to remain silent and ask for a lawyer immediately. Don't sign, say or agree to anything without a lawyer present.If you get stopped by a member of the military or any law enforcement office at a protest, you have the right to remain silent or to tell them that you’ll only answer questions in the presence of an attorney — no matter your citizenship or immigration status.”

If you’re protesting this weekend, know your rights.

15.03.2025 13:07 👍 6405 🔁 3911 💬 59 📌 108
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NIH to ax grants on vaccine hesitancy, mRNA vaccines Move reflects vaccine skepticism of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

NIH is axing research on mRNA vaccines. But on Jan 22 Trump announced a huge investment with Larry Ellison to develop mRNA cancer vaccines. So mRNA for cancer=good, mRNA for infectious disease=bad. Totally makes sense...

www.science.org/content/arti...

www.foxbusiness.com/markets/trum...

11.03.2025 20:30 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This is an important article. Far more money and resources goes to specialists than primary care. But when you think about your doctor, the medical expert you trust and see the most, they’re probably a primary care doc.

11.03.2025 02:06 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0