Opinion | Dr. Ozs Journey From Heart Doctor to Celebrity to Iconoclast

Before medical contrarianism became intrinsic to his identity, Dr.Mehmet Oz appeared motivated by curiosity rather than opportunism.

Arriving at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in 1986 to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr.Oz became well respected in the field.

But much to the chagrin of administrators and peers, he also showed a penchant for questionable medicine.In the mid-1990s, he invited a healer into the hospital’s cardiac operating room “to run a kind of energy, which science cannot prove exists,” through patients’ bodies.Proponents claim that kind of practice and its adjacents (think Reiki or “therapeutic touch”) improve people’s health and result in faster recovery times, less pain and better physical function for patients — despite a lack of scientific explanation for how they might do so.“Not everything adds up,” Dr.

Oz told The New Yorker in 2013.“It’s about making people more comfortable.”This nonconformist approach endeared Dr.

Oz to patients and to a public eager for a warmer approach to medicine.At the same time, it became a way to accrue decades of fame and fortune.Those efforts have culminated in Dr.

Oz’s nomination by President Trump to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Senate hearings are to begin Friday.

If confirmed, his appointment would be yet another signal to a new wave of charismatic health personalities that science and evidence are negotiable in the service of ambition.In 1996, Dr.Oz helped transplant a heart for the brother of Joe Torre, then manager of the New York Yankees.

It was “his first big splash of publicity,” a former colleague, Dr.Eric Rose, who led the Torre operation, said, “and he loved it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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