Dr. Mehmet Oz, better known as TV’s Dr. Oz, is the target of a letter 10 physicians sent to Columbia University this week, asking that he be fired by the university. However, Columbia has not done so yet.
“Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine,” the letter to Lee Goldman, the dean of Columbia’s Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, reads, reports the Associated Press. They note that he is still selling “miracle” weight-loss supplements, even though there is no proof to back up his statements.
Dr. Henry Miller of Stanford, who signed the letter, told the New York Daily News that Oz is a “quack and a fake and a charlatan.” He believes that the only reason why Columbia has kept him on the faculty is bechase they are “star-struck” and like to have well-known personalities linked to the Ivy League school.
Oz, 54, has been at Columbia since 1993 and was a well-known cardiothoracic surgeon before he became a TV star thanks to his links to Oprah Winfrey. He is currently the vice chairman of Columbia’s department of surgery and still teaches occasionally, despite his television commitments.
Doug Levy, chief communications officer for Columbia University Medical Center, told USA Today that the school administration does not plan to fire Oz at this time. “The university does not regulate faculty engagement in public discourse,” Levy told the paper.
Last year, Oz was called to testify before a Senate panel in Washington and was criticized for marketing the “miracle” weight-loss supplements, which often don’t work. He insisted that there are studies to back up the supplements he pushes on his show, even if some of them aren’t passed by the USDA.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com