14 DAY TRIAL // Dr. Mehmet Oz, aka Dr. Oz, the most famous doctor on TV, is coming under fire again for his tendency to use his huge platform to promote fad diets and products whose efficiency is yet to be scientifically proven.
This time, a group of doctors has fired off a letter to Columbia University, where he holds the position of Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery, asking for his dismissal, Yahoo! Health has learned.
Dr. Oz has no integrity, no place in such a respectable institution
Last year, Dr. Oz came under heavy fire in a Senate panel accusing him of using his platform to sell quack medicine and impart harmful advice, thus contributing to a crisis in consumer protection. The examples cited by the Commission included one of Dr. Oz’s recent favorites, green coffee bean extract, which he often talked about on his show, praising it as a miracle product for weight loss.
In reality, green coffee bean extract does nothing to support or encourage weight loss, which Dr. Oz probably knew - but he didn’t let it stop him from endorsing it, thus forcing it on his gullible public, who actually thought he was offering them sound advice.
The letter from the group of doctors is based on the controversy caused by this Senate hearing and the evidence it unearthed about how far Dr. Oz goes to make a profit, even if that means risking the lives of his loyal fans.
It is signed by Henry I. Miller, M.D., Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy & Public Policy at Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Dr. Miller and his colleagues, “all of whom are distinguished physicians,” voice surprise in finding out that Dr. Oz still holds an administrative position at Columbia, despite the scandal.
“Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops. Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain,” Dr. Miller says.
He continues to accuse Dr. Oz of lacking integrity and putting personal financial gain above the health of the people he counsels, and thus being a spot on the record of such a respectable institution as Columbia University.
No response yet
Dr. Oz has been with Columbia since 2001. As of the time of writing, neither he nor anyone from the institution has responded to the request made in the letter.
All doctors backing Dr. Miller give their full name and occupation, thus stressing that having Dr. Oz dismissed is a matter of great importance. The implication that having a “quack doctor” on the faculty is not at all subtle.
In his defense, after the Senate meeting and following the publication of several papers showing that his cures, diets and many other products had no scientific backing, Dr. Oz owned up to his share of responsibility and promised he’d do better research before promoting anything else.
He also said that some of the mistakes he’d made were not intentional: he didn’t mean his viewers harm, he simply got carried away and failed to do his research.