The Case of Dr. Oz: Ethics, Evidence, and Does Professional Self-Regulation Work?

Abstract

Dr. Mehmet Oz is widely known not just as a successful media personality donning the title "America's Doctor ® ," but, we suggest, also as a physician visibly out of step with his profession. A recent, unsuccessful attempt to censure Dr. Oz raises the issue of whether the medical profession can effectively self-regulate at all. It also raises concern that the medical profession's self-regulation might be selectively activated, perhaps only when the subject of professional censure has achieved a level of public visibility. We argue here that the medical profession must look at itself with a healthy dose of self-doubt about whether it has sufficient knowledge of or handle on the less visible Dr. "Ozes" quietly operating under the profession's presumptive endorsement.

The perceived role and relevance of South African optometric professional and regulatory bodies

“…10 The regulatory body is tasked with monitoring the discipline of registered professionals, with a mandate to act against members violating their professional scope and ethical framework. 2,11,12 The absence of such a body and performance of regulatory duties by professional associations with voluntary registration poses various challenges. Until recently, in some regions regulation of optometrists had been the quasi-duty of various professional associations, such as the Ghana Optometric Association (GOA), which found it very difficult to regulate the nonmembers over whom they had no legal jurisdiction.…”