Dr. Mehmet Oz

Although he’s pioneering new ways of thinking about medical care, Dr. Mehmet Oz, an award-winning heart surgeon with an undergraduate degree from Harvard, and a joint MD and MBA from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton Business School, wasn’t always sure medicine was his calling. “As a child I wanted to be either a pro athlete or a heart surgeon,” says Oz. “I failed at the former, so I pursued the latter. In reality, they are scarily similar professions. You have to deliver the goods every day. And no one cares how well you performed yesterday.”

Today, Dr. Oz is Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital. His research interests include heart replacement surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, complementary medicine and health care policy. Dr. Oz has authored over 400 original publications, book chapters, and medical books and has received several patents. He performs over 300 heart operations annually.

Dr. Oz is the Health Expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show and is Chief Medical Consultant to Discovery Communications, hosting shows including Second Opinion with Dr. Oz and Life Line and the award-winning Transplant! series. In addition to numerous other appearances, he has guest hosted The Charlie Rose Show. He also served as medical director of Denzel Washington’s John Q.

Dr. Oz authored four New York Times bestsellers: You: The Owner’s Manual, You: The Smart Patient, YOU: On a Diet, and You: Staying Young, as well as the award-winning Healing from the Heart. He has a regular column in Esquire and Reader’s Digest and has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Self, Good Housekeeping, Elle, New York Magazine, Men’s Journal, and Heart & Soul.

His approach incorporates both traditional Western techniques for treating disease and alternative ideas about healthy lifestyle choices that contribute to overall wellness. He has successfully treated patients — some of them famous celebrities — with a combination of cutting-edge Western techniques and alternative Eastern therapies such as acupuncture and yoga. He encourages patients to become partners with their doctors.

In addition to belonging to every major professional society for heart surgeons, Dr. Oz was elected as a Global Leaders of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, and won the prestigious American Association for Thoracic Surgery Gross Research Scholarship. He was voted The Best and Brightest by Esquire Magazine and was elected one of the Doctors of the Year by Hippocrates magazine and Healers of the Millennium by Healthy Living. He is annually elected as one of the best physicians in the USA by the Castle Connolly Guide as well as other major ranking groups. In 2006 he was honored as one of The Harvard 100 Most influential Alumni in the 02138 Magazine