Both, I think.
A hybrid. Let me explain.
Yesterday’s testimony before senators on Capitol Hill, which seemed
an odd and embarrassing display for a fatigued and slightly
disheveled-appearing Dr. Mehmet Oz, was quite telling. The PR spin (or framing) was immediate and
discouraging. In the video clips that I
watched, Dr. Oz tried to shift the focus away from his own questionable
performance to that of the profiteering shady entrepreneurs who've been
benefitting from his immensely consumer-influential product pitches. He claimed no financial benefit from his
promotions, which really wasn’t the point. Personally, I needed for Dr. Oz to own his share of the problem of making flamboyant and misleading recommendations. Perhaps
the posted video clips didn’t show that, so I make no judgment.
My feeling is that, if Dr. Oz wouldn’t try to
convince people to buy into his testimonials about “lightning in a bottle” and
miracles and fat-busters with guaranteed results, the shady characters would
have much less business. Snake oil salespeople and parasitic cottage industries
have existed forever, and it’s a societal problem that one person can’t fix. That said, Dr. Oz, you can only change you, and
it’s on you to reset the integrity of your show so that it’s back to your
original vision of helping the public.
I’ve been watching Dr. Oz’s TV show since it
started. As a health care professional
it’s important for me to be familiar with my community’s sources of health information,
and I was curious in my own right. I watched,
and I tried more than a few of his suggestions along the way.
In the beginning I was surprised by Dr. Oz’s ability
to get people talking about their poop. People don’t usually talk about their body waste in public, and
physicians often are not known to be great communicators with lay people. Those factors combined to make Dr. Oz a
groundbreaking TV show. It was raw,
grass roots, for the people, and moderated by a bona fide clinical health care
professional. Most importantly, it
educated the public in plain language and helped to empower people to take
charge of their own health situations. The
Dr. Oz Show had the potential to be a dream-come-true for health educators and clinical
practitioners – and most importantly our patients.
Even then, however, I wondered how the show would sustain
its momentum. Sure, it piqued people’s
curiosity that others were discussing private physical matters in public, but
you can only stretch a poop so far, so to speak. How long would the public stay
interested? My other concern involved
the fact that, although Dr. Oz is a very successful cardio-thoracic surgeon (really
quite admirable), he doesn’t have expert credentials in every, or many, aspects
of health and wellness. No one does. Is
it really fair to ride your MD and your personality to areas where you’re not a
bona fide expert? Doesn’t that make you
an entertainer more than an expert? Truthfully,
I was trying some of Dr.Oz’s suggestions without experiencing the promised
outcome. For example, raspberry extract and
super fiber effected no changes in my body, but I quickly noticed that my
vitamin store was out of stock of the products that were mentioned on the show.
I became increasingly uncomfortable that the show could go down the wrong path.
Over time I realized that Dr. Oz (or the show's decision-makers) had
other people conducting research into various topics that would be discussed on
the show, and Dr. Oz would apparently read the teleprompter extolling the
virtues or so-called miracle qualities of this or that product. Let’s face it – there seems no way he could
vet all the reports and topics that were handed to him. There are only 24 hours in a day, and the man
is still conducting surgeries and other ventures in addition to filming this
show. I felt that he was running on
faith, and perhaps being pressured by producers and sponsors to do what it
takes keep the show rolling, to the point where the show and its visual
demonstrations bordered on absurd. Soon enough, the topics and the product
promotions became more and more “out there” with claims of miracles and
guarantees, and I started to wonder if Dr. Oz was in control of the show at
all. At some point it crossed a line
with me, and I stopped watching for a long time, only recently returning to see
that some changes have been made that made it even more incredible, and cheesy,
in my opinion. At least there were guests with expertise in their health care
specialty areas, but they seemed rushed through their presentations and they
were speaking medicalese instead of
plain language. Even Dr. Oz is sometimes speaking so quickly that he trips on
his tongue. Too much information being crammed
into too little time, using a language not common to all.
I’m not sure that Dr.Oz’s
employer or sponsors would share the idea of slowing things down and
reconsidering health literacy and relevant topics, as I continue to suspect
their profit motivation as the cause of the shift in the show. Maybe it’s
better to walk away. The Dr. Oz show can
do far greater service to the public than to continue as an hour-long
infomercial.
