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Home / MCNTalk / Dr. Oz: Only a Third of Claims Backed by "Believable&qu...

December 29, 2014

Dr. Oz: Only a Third of Claims Backed by "Believable" Evidence?

His credentials are impressive: Vice-Chairman, Department of Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgery; he has a long list of publications; and he holds three degrees from Ivy League Colleges. He’s also won a few Emmys and was one of the Time 100, The World’s 100 Most Influential People, in 2008.

Yet Dr. Oz, host of The Doctor Oz Show  since 2009 and The Doctors doesn’t do so well when it comes to fact checking. Following a June 2014 Senate subcommittee hearing in which he was taken to task for unsubstantiated claims made on his show, a group of Canadian researchers and physicians fact checked many claims he has made on his shows.

Researchers randomly selected 80 claims from each show and looked to see what evidence, if any, could back them up. Two team members conducted independent searches, spending up to an hour on each one. “In an attempt to be as fair as possible” to the shows, they wrote, they “used a relatively broad definition of support.” Still, only 21% of the recommendations on “The Dr. Oz Show” could be supported by what the researchers considered “believable” evidence. Another 11% were supported by “somewhat believable” evidence. Given that his shows’ viewership averages just under 3 million people per day, that’s a lot of people being exposed to a lot of apparently unsubstantiated medical advice.

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Tagged: Clinical Issues, Legal Issues, Lifestyle and habits, The Practice of Medicine 2 Comments

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  1. Dan Brzusek says

    December 30, 2014 at 7:48 am

    Common, it’s entertainment, not medical science!

    You want the truth, the general public can’t stand the truth

    Reply
  2. Elena says

    January 16, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    I have at least 2 patients a week who give me some sort o f reference to the show…if it is great, like “Dr. Oz thinks I could live longer if loose weight!” I am happy, but if it something like” Dr. Oz says that all the RA therapies are bad for you and you should just drink some potion instead”….??? Medicine is not compatible with entertainment.

    I believe there was a NJEM article on checking fact on the famous ER show…apparently they were very “medical” , and indeed their team of experts was very useful in getting the fact right.

    Dr Oz??the Wizzard? Really???

    Reply

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