When it comes to mockery, Dr. Oz is as close to a perfect target as you'll find. For years, we have been taking serious issue with Oz s tactics: Becoming America s Doctor, courtesy of Oprah, transforming himself from a respected cardiac surgeon to a peddler of both useless supplements and junk science once he got his own show.
(ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom has written a number of seriously unflattering (and amusing) Science pieces about Oz, two of which can be read here, and here.)
But, Dr. Henry Miller, a highly regarded Research Fellow at the Hoover Institute, who specializes in public health policy, scientific philosophy, junk science and medicine, to name a few, does not find the relationship between Oz and Columbia University the least bit funny.
Dr. Miller wrote this letter to Dr. Lee Goldman, the Dean of Faculties of Health Science and Medicine, strongly suggesting that Oz be stripped of his privileges at Columbia.
A few key (and very blunt) quotes from his letter, which was co-signed by a number of prestigious physicians and policy makers, including ACSH trustee Dr. Jack Fisher, and medical director Dr. Gil Ross.
We are surprised and dismayed that Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons would permit Dr. Mehmet Oz to occupy a faculty appointment, let alone a senior administrative position in the Department of Surgery.
Worst of all, [Oz] has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.
Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgements about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both ¦ members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz's presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable.
In case the letter alone is not sufficiently damning, a piece on Vox.com entitled The making of Dr. Oz. How an award-winning doctor turned away from science and embraced fame" certainly completes the job. Highly recommended.
