Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon, a specialist in the chest including the heart, lung and esophagus. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a doctorate in medicine and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School. He has worked at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center — now the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. There, he was appointed director of the Cardiovascular Institute and participated in the first completely endoscopic, robotic open-heart operation and first robotic coronary artery bypass operation in the United States. He also co-founded and directed a Complementary Care Center there with alternative therapies such as energy healing, hypnosis and massage, according to reporting from the second half of the 1990s. He rose through the ranks at Columbia University, where he became a vice-chair and professor of surgery. The university has removed almost all content about Oz from its website since 2022.
