Mehmet Cengiz Öz[a] (/məˈmɛt ˈdʒɛŋɡɪz ɒz/ meh-MET JENG-gihz oz; Turkish: [mehˈmet dʒeɲˈɟiz øz]; born June 11, 1960), also known as Dr. Oz (/ɒz/), is an American television presenter, physician, author, professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University, former political candidate, and President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during his second presidency.

Oz's promotion of pseudoscience, including on the topics of alternative medicine, faith healing, and various paranormal beliefs, has earned him criticism from several medical publications and physicians.

Mehmet Oz was born on June 11, 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Suna and Mustafa Öz,[6][7] who had emigrated from Konya Province, Turkey.

[10] Suna (née Atabay), who comes from a wealthy Istanbul family, is the daughter of a pharmacist with Circassian (Shapsug) descent on her mother's side.

[11] Oz has said, "My mother is Circassian, her great grandmother was brought from the Caucasus to Istanbul as a concubine in Sultan Mahmud II's harem".

[28] Oz began his medical career with a residency at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City,[29] then affiliated with Columbia University, in 1986 after being hired by Eric Rose.

[30] In April 1995, Oz and his colleague Jerry Whitworth founded the Cardiac Complementary Care Center to provide various types of alternative medicine to heart disease patients.

[15] In 2000, Whitworth departed the Cardiac Complementary Care Center, which Oz reopened that same year as the Cardiovascular Institute and Integrative Medicine Program at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where he served as director.

[42] Anonymous sources cited by The Washington Post said that another reason for the rejection was due to having data from too few test subjects to reach a strong conclusion.

[49] Oz responded to the call, saying "I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves" and that his show provides "multiple points of view, including mine, which is offered without conflict of interest.

[65] In January 2011, Oz premiered as part of a weekly advice show on OWN called "Ask Oprah's All-Stars," where he co-starred with Suze Orman and Phil McGraw to answer various questions related to their respective professions.

[97] In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and said that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it would cause.

[100][101] He supported the re-election campaign of President George W. Bush in 2004 and the candidacy of Shmuley Boteach, a rabbi who ran for Congress as a Republican in New Jersey in 2012.

A day after the election, Oz narrowly led his main opponent David McCormick by a difference of just 0.1% of the vote, triggering a mandatory statewide recount.

[116] On May 27, before the recount started, Oz prematurely declared victory, calling himself the presumptive nominee[117] and opposing counting certain mailed ballots.

[130] Fetterman replied, "Today's statement from Dr. Oz's team made it abundantly clear that they think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor.

[135] Oz lost to Fetterman in the Senate election by a margin of 4.9%, conceding defeat on November 9, 2022, and further urging "everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done".

Trump said that Oz would work alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, of which the CMS is a subdivision, to cut waste and fraud.

[100][101] In 2022, Oz announced that he supported overturning the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision and was against abortion, except for when the mother's life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest.

[158][159] In October 2022, Oz said that "women, doctors, local political leaders" should put "ideas forward so states can decide for themselves" how to regulate abortions, but also clarified that "I don't want the federal government involved with that, at all".

[169] In 2022, Oz said that he supports the process of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") and believes that natural gas can help the United States become energy independent and reduce gasoline prices.

[170] Oz has faced "dual loyalty" charges from critics, alleging he holds ties to Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party.

[171] During his Republican primary campaign for Senate in December 2021, the National Review published a list of instances in which Oz interacted with people or groups associated with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or his political party.

[178] Previously, in 2017, Oz had expressed support for waiting periods before someone can acquire a gun, and in 2019 he co-wrote a column that called for the United States to ban assault rifles altogether.

[154] In May 2022, he said that a transgender youth movement is based on "false science", while not supporting a ban on hormone blockers, adding that the doctor and family should decide, rather than politicians.

[192] In an interview with NBC News, Oz expressed support for President Joe Biden's effort to pardon those convicted of simple marijuana possession at the federal level.

[203] In late 2020, Oz moved to Pennsylvania and changed his voter registration to his in-laws' home in Bryn Athyn, where he says he pays market price rent.

[21] He has said that he maintains his Turkish citizenship to care for his ailing mother with Alzheimer's, but Oz expressed he would renounce it before being sworn in if he was ultimately elected to the Senate.

Oz said that he was forced to hold payments from the apartments in escrow, as their mother and other relatives were suing Nazlim in Turkish probate court over the distribution of Mustafa Öz's estate.

[216] His wife Lisa introduced Oz to the teachings of the 18th-century Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg[217] as well as to alternative medicines or Eastern mysticisms such as reiki and transcendental meditation.