Dr. Oz.Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images
Dr. Mehmet Ozwas reportedly banned from presenting to a medical organization for two years beginning in 2003, after a medical study he authored was called into question due to the strength of the data used.
Seven people who spoke to thePosttold the outlet Oz was also “prohibited from publishing his work in the society’s medical journal for the same period of time.”
A spokesperson for the Oz campaign did not dispute the story to thePost, saying: “The original abstract was accepted for presentation, but only included a limited number of patients. Since they had several months between submission of the abstract and its presentation at the national meeting, [Oz’s] team elected to broaden the scope of the work with more patients. Reviewers of his team’s work wanted only the data in the original paper to be presented, which created an academic disagreement amongst researchers.”
Still, thePostnotes that medical officials at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where Oz worked before launching his campaign, took no action against him, and the doctor is now “back in the good graces of the AATS, appearing at conferences, according to documents and the Oz campaign.”
The president of the AATS further explained to the outlet that the study was withdrawn over “a technical issue and not in any way related to fabrication of data or dishonesty.”
Oz is currently the Republican candidate for senator in Pennsylvania,a central battleground for control of the Senate.
Oz’s background in medicine has come up several times during the campaign, particularly as his opponent, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov.John Fetterman, suffered a stroke earlier this year. Oz hasmade Fetterman’s health a central focusof the campaign, which appears to have worked to some extent — despite Fetterman’s insistence that he’son the road to full recovery— but hasn’t been enough to give him the upper hand.
Oz has courted controversy for medical claims he’s made in the past, particularly when he hosted his eponymous syndicated daytime talk show. In 2011, Oz told viewers that apple juice contains dangerous levels of the cancer-causing chemical arsenic, even as professionals on the matter,including the FDAand one of the apple juice manufacturers, warned Oz before the segment aired that his methodology was inaccurate and would be irresponsible if publicized because it failed to distinguish between organic and inorganic arsenic. (Organic arsenic, commonly found in juice, has not been linked to cancer.)
In other episodes of his show, Oz explored"miracle" weight loss products, the possibility of Ebola becoming airborne, and the (widely disgraced)practice of conversion therapy.
In 2015, after years of questionable medical claims airing onThe Dr. Oz Show, a group of doctors from various institutionscalled for his firingfrom Columbia University, where he’d continued to hold a high-level role in the surgery department.
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source: people.com
