A group of prominent doctors have asked Columbia University to remove Dr. Mehmet Oz from its faculty, saying he has “repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine.” A letter, signed by 10 physicians from across the country, was sent to Lee Goldman, MD, MPH, Columbia’s dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine.
“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,” reads the letter. The letter cites two articles, including one from MedPage Today, in support of the doctors’ position.
Dr. Oz ― who hosts a television show of the same name ― is a cardiothoracic surgeon and vice chairman of Columbia’s surgery department.
It is not the first time that Oz has come under fire publicly. Last summer, he was called to testifyat a Senate hearing regarding his support of certain weight-loss products. After a 2011 TV show about the dangers of arsenic in apple juice, Oz received an angry response from the Food and Drug Administration.
RELATED: Why Dr. Oz Needs to Stop Promising Diet Miracles
The author of the Columbia letter, Henry I. Miller, MD, a fellow in scientific philosophy and public policy at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, has previously written about Oz’s practices in publications like Slate. Dr. Miller told CBS News that “a person who endangers patients and is a menace to public health should not be on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution.”
“Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain,” the letter continues. “Thus, Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgements (sic) about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both.”
Columbia’s chief communications officer, Doug Levy, responded to Miller’s letter on Thursday, saying: “As I am sure you understand and appreciate, Columbia is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members’ freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion.”
Source: Everydayhealth
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