Dr Oz, the Wizard of the Airwaves

Dr Mehmet Oz is a practicing cardiothoracic surgeon (although his operative schedule has tapered off to a hundred cases a year at Columbia) who is now known as a talk show host who promotes questionable health remedies.  As a resident in the 1990’s, he did laboratory work that earned him eleven patents and numerous awards.  However, he has always been “open” to “alternative medicine.”  For example, he is said to be a believer in homeopathy and reiki (two treatment approaches that have been shown to be useless) and he has promoted numerous odd and unapproved remedies for obesity, insomnia, and many other common conditions.

There is little to say about Dr Oz that hasn’t already been said by much more popular writers than myself.  For example, here is an article by Julia Belluz, who has been a critical follower of Dr Oz for years:   http://www.vox.com/2015/4/16/8412427/dr-oz-health-claims

Ms Belluz’ criticisms of Dr Oz have made her persona non grata to Dr Oz’ publicity people, and she has been refused entry as a member of the studio audience on his show permanently.  She doesn’t appear to have written anything libelous or made personal attacks on him.  She has, however, reported that others have called him a “quack” or a “fraud.”

The overall picture is one of a highly charismatic individual who has been trained in cardiothoracic surgery and has done a lot of good work in the laboratory and operating room, but who uncritically believes in mythological “alternatives” to actual medicine.  He has used his charisma liberally, to create an enterprise that now runs a TV show with four million daily viewers, many of whom seem to hang on his every word.

His clinic, originally called the Cardiac Complementary Care Center when it was opened in 1994 in partnership with Jery Whitworth, a certified perfusionist and registered nurse, was closed in 2000 when Whitworth left and immediately reopened under another name.  Whitworth stated that the two couldn’t agree on the way Oz was promoting treatments which hadn’t been proven.  Apparently, Whitworth wanted to continue experiments with these treatments, while Oz simply wanted to use them in practice.  Whitworth didn’t believe there was sufficient evidence to use such treatments, and from all appearances there never will be sufficient evidence.  The treatments included reiki, hypnosis, “therapeutic touch”, guided imagery, prayer, reflexology, aromatherapy, and yoga.  None of these treatments has ever been shown to have the desired effects, or any effects other than relaxing the patient.

Another employee, a physician assistant who also left in frustration, stated that the clinic seemed to have become all about promoting Dr Oz rather than treating patients.

He has tapped in to patient’s loneliness, need for belonging, and need for reassurance with his TV show (since 2009), on appearances with other hosts such as Oprah Winfrey (with whom he was a regular guest since 2004), and his personal approach to patients who are managed in his clinic by his staff.  He does not take the trouble to “work up” his patients (that is, perform a history and physical examination in the traditional manner) but depends on members of his staff to do the basic medical work and then feed him a summary.  Many surgeons perform their functions in this manner, and this is appropriate when their purpose is to spend more time in the operating room and avoid approaching the patient’s nonsurgical problems.  The idea is to have patients selected who need surgery, and then operate on them.  Nonsurgical problems are normally referred to an internal medicine, or other medical specialist.

Dr Oz doesn’t do this.  He uncritically promotes weight loss remedies and ineffective treatments for many other common nonsurgical conditions.  He doesn’t do an appropriate evaluation to determine the patient’s needs for nonsurgical treatments– a much more complex decision-making process than finding an operable lesion (such as a blocked coronary artery.)  He fails to stick to the specialty that he was trained for: cardiothoracic surgery.

Dr Oz has done a lot of good in the operating room, but he has done a lot of harm to many more individuals who consider his advice to be gospel.  He has “partnered” with a number of questionable “alternative” health care companies who produce useless “medicines” that he promotes on his TV show.  His promotion of homeopathy and reiki alone constitute malpractice, because these approaches have been abundantly proven to be useless, and their use diverts attention from more appropriate forms of therapy.

There is no harm in using one’s charisma to reassure patients and make them feel better.  In fact, this constitutes a large part of medical practice.  It is known by such names as “healing touch” or “placebo effect” and is a powerful force in helping patients.  Dr Oz has not limited himself to reassurance, however; he uses his power to promote useless and dangerous treatments from which he may personally profit.

There has not been any allegation that he has taken money to promote “alternative” remedies but it seems odd that he needs the Oz Media Company to organize his “branding, speaking, and partnership endeavors” (Ms Belluz’ words.)  I think he clearly profits from his promotion of unproven and proven to be useless treatments, not just in his clinic, but in TV appearances and “partnership endeavors” (using his name to endorse treatments.)

Dr Oz is an extremely dangerous person because he is highly charismatic and has used his charisma to promote useless and dangerous “alternative medicine” techniques.  He has taken advantage of medicine’s extremely elastic standards of care to do his promotions and gets away with, figuratively, murder.

For more about Dr Oz, consult blogger Benjamin Mazer, currently a third year medical student at the University of Rochester.  He has started a blog called “Doctors in Oz” ( http://www.doctorsinoz.com/) in which he collects stories from doctors and patients about the harm Dr Oz has caused them.  For example, there is the patient who stopped taking his anticoagulants on Dr Oz’ general advice on TV after having five stents put in his cardiac arteries, didn’t tell his cardiologist about it, and had a massive myocardial infarction followed by cardiac arrest, from which he was fortunately resuscitated.

Mr Mazer is attempting to have the New York State Medical Board establish a standard for public physicians, much like the standards for expert witnesses, that requires them to do full disclosure on therapies that they promote.  The idea is to force them to tell the truth, not muzzle them.  Read his web site for details.