UD has covered several stories involving, er, questionable physicians on the faculty of Columbia University. (Here’s the most recent.) The place attracts an odd lot, and of course med schools don’t pay much attention to their faculties, because there are absolutely tons of people vaguely affiliated with medical faculties and they’re doing God knows what.
One Columbia med school professor UD has always wondered about is Mehmet Oz, doc to the credulous unwashed masses. You see the guy get hauled up before Congress to explain why he’s pushing treatments in which he has massive financial interests; you watch him say stuff that… Well, let’s approach the latest news story about him by citing the headline in Gizmodo’s coverage:
DOCTORS ASK COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TO
FIRE DR. OZ BECAUSE HE’S FULL OF SHIT
A bunch of docs at places other than Columbia have written a letter to the dean of the med school (they are “all distinguished,” the letter writers note). They want him removed from the premises.
And it’s actually a very good, very strong letter. Short and sour and way to the point – especially this bit:
Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgements about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both. Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable.
Whatever the nature of his pathology. Ouch. Ooch. Eech.
Of course they can’t get rid of the dude. He’s probably already preparing a defamation whatever, plus his loyal minions will stage protests in their operating rooms or something. At best Columbia will muzzle him a little.
April 16th, 2015 at 11:33PM
So, some very prominent doctors are worried that Dr. Oz’s is misleading the public, because he’s using treatments that they don’t like. Wonder where they stand on this:
phys.org › Medicine & Health › Medications
Seems the FDA doesn’t concern itself much regarding the efficacy of supposedly appropriate treatments. Gotta ask where those gatekeepers of the medical conscious were when the GAO discovered that the FDA refused to do its job?
April 17th, 2015 at 7:24AM
he’s misleading the public cuz he’s selling them snake-oil but the point about the docs not doing more in general to fight the scam artists making billions off of “supplements” is well taken.