Dr. Oz Has Promoted Ideas That Feel Like Some Real Flimflam — Is He a Real Doctor?

As Dr. Oz enters a new phase of his career, heading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we are reminded of a time when he had psychic John Edwards on his show. In March 2011, TV Guide spoke with Dr. Oz about an experience he claimed changed his life. Much like Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil, John Edwards was elevated into near God-like status by Oprah Winfrey. The decision to have John on the show came after Dr. Oz was chatting with friends about the afterlife.

We love scientific curiosity as much as the next person who still believes in science, but Dr. Oz came away from his interviewing claiming that John Edwards "seems authentic" and "not at all like a charlatan." He reached this conclusion after seeing how specific John was in his details. You know what they say: The devil's in the details. This doesn't begin to cover Dr. Oz's rather unorthodox beliefs. Is he a real doctor? Here's what we know.

According to a profile in The New York Times, Dr. Oz graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, obtained a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and then rounded out his educational career with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Penn's Wharton School. He has the education, but does Dr. Oz have the experience? He sure does.

Following medical school, Dr. Oz landed at Columbia and New York-Presbyterian Hospital where, for two decades, he specialized in heart transplants and served as vice-chairman and professor in the department of surgery, per The New Yorker. In 2013, he was still performing heart surgeries there on a weekly basis. In 1994, Dr. Oz established Columbia’s Cardiovascular Institute and Integrative Medicine Program, of which he was the director.

Not that we need to be further sold on Dr. Oz's medical background, but let's keep going. He has published dozens of articles on "how to preserve muscle tissue during mitral valve replacements." As if this isn't enough, he also holds a patent on a "solution that can preserve organs and one on an aortic valve that can be implanted without highly invasive open-heart surgery." But wait, there's more.

In April 2015, CBS News reported that 10 leading doctors called on Columbia University to have Dr. Oz removed from its faculty. In a letter addressed to Dr. Lee Goldman, Columbia's Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, they accused Dr. Oz of repeatedly showing a "disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine." They also said he has "manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain."

The letter was referencing Dr. Oz's "fear-mongering" around genetically modified foods as well as an unfounded claim about arsenic in apple juice. The latter was refuted by the FDA, who said his report was "irresponsible and misleading." In the past, Dr. Oz has also promoted sham weight loss pills such as green coffee bean extract. He was called to testify before Congress in a hearing about "deceptive advertising for over-the-counter diet supplements."