Medical association banned Oz for two years over “shoddy study he was forced to withdraw”: report

Pennsylvania Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz was banned for two years from presenting research at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery conference after submitting a shoddy study that he ultimately was forced to withdraw.

The Washington Post reports that experts at the AATS raised “questions about the strength of the data used by Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, to reach an important medical conclusion” about undergoing a cardiac bypass with the aid of a heart-lung machine.

According to the Post, Oz based the conclusions of his research on a study that featured just 56 test subjects, which was far too low of a number to reach a definitive conclusion about such important research.

Bruce W. Lytle, an AATS official involved in the decision to ban Oz, said he made the decision based on “making it absolutely clear that the presentation should reflect the methodology as described in the abstract.”

Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, told the Post that such bans on researchers are rare, particularly if they involve high-profile researchers such as Oz.

“It’s something they take very seriously and reserve for fairly significant issues, whether they’re behavioral or issues of scientific integrity,” Oransky said.