Dr. Oz's Medical Research Was Once Rejected Due to Strength of Data: Report

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Dr. Oz

Dr. Mehmet Oz was reportedly banned from presenting to a medical organization for two years beginning in 2003, after a medical study he authored was called into question due to the strength of the data used.

The Washington Post reports that a study Oz authored on heart bypass surgery was scheduled to lead off a session of the 83rd annual American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) conference, before the study was ultimately withdrawn and Oz was temporarily banned from presenting to the organization.

Seven people who spoke to the Post told the outlet Oz was also "prohibited from publishing his work in the society's medical journal for the same period of time."

A spokesperson for the Oz campaign did not dispute the story to the Post, saying: "The original abstract was accepted for presentation, but only included a limited number of patients. Since they had several months between submission of the abstract and its presentation at the national meeting, [Oz's] team elected to broaden the scope of the work with more patients. Reviewers of his team's work wanted only the data in the original paper to be presented, which created an academic disagreement amongst researchers."

Still, the Post notes that medical officials at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where Oz worked before launching his campaign, took no action against him, and the doctor is now "back in the good graces of the AATS, appearing at conferences, according to documents and the Oz campaign."

The president of the AATS further explained to the outlet that the study was withdrawn over "a technical issue and not in any way related to fabrication of data or dishonesty."

RELATED: Fact Check: Was Dr. Oz Responsible for Cruelly Experimenting on Dogs?

Oz is currently the Republican candidate for senator in Pennsylvania, a central battleground for control of the Senate.

Oz's background in medicine has come up several times during the campaign, particularly as his opponent, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, suffered a stroke earlier this year. Oz has made Fetterman's health a central focus of the campaign, which appears to have worked to some extent — despite Fetterman's insistence that he's on the road to full recovery — but hasn't been enough to give him the upper hand.

Oz has courted controversy for medical claims he's made in the past, particularly when he hosted his eponymous syndicated daytime talk show. In 2011, Oz told viewers that apple juice contains dangerous levels of the cancer-causing chemical arsenic, even as professionals on the matter, including the FDA and one of the apple juice manufacturers, warned Oz before the segment aired that his methodology was inaccurate and would be irresponsible if publicized because it failed to distinguish between organic and inorganic arsenic. (Organic arsenic, commonly found in juice, has not been linked to cancer.)

Oz went forward with his claims anyway, sounding a false alarm — and subsequently losing viewers' trust when the FDA intervened to set the record straight. Proper tests conducted by the FDA on the same batches of juice revealed a significantly lower arsenic count that they deemed "no cause for concern."

RELATED: The Rise and Fall of Dr. Oz: A Timeline of His Controversial Career

In other episodes of his show, Oz explored "miracle" weight loss products, the possibility of Ebola becoming airborne, and the (widely disgraced) practice of conversion therapy.

In 2015, after years of questionable medical claims airing on The Dr. Oz Show, a group of doctors from various institutions called for his firing from Columbia University, where he'd continued to hold a high-level role in the surgery department.

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The pro-MAGA candidate has also courted controversy for a recently resurfaced scandal involving the cruel treatment of animals by Columbia University research teams that he oversaw.

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