Abdul El Sayed "controversy"

General Discussion
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Jordan and Austin, I’d love to get your take on an emerging “controversy” over one of the candidates in the Michigan Democratic Senate Primary, Abdul El Sayed.

He is a public health official who ran the Detroit and Wayne Country PH departments and has made a couple of runs for office in the past. His training is as an MD/PhD (in public health) and after an experience in his residency that disillusioned him (related to turfing out patients onto the street ASAP) he exited medicine to focus on public health meaning he never got licenced or became a practicing physician. None of this is secret and is a part of his biography he has been pretty clear about.

There is now a “not a real doctor” controversy around him because people are claiming he has misrepresented himself, particularly in past political campaigns, with things like wearing a white coat and referring to himself as a physician. I know in legal situations that term has a more specific definition than doctor related to treating patients, but even acknowledging that, this seems drummed up. I get that for a lot of people the concept of a doctor who’s never actually practiced might be confusing, but coming from a clinical research/academia background I know loads of MD/PhDs for whom that is the case.

How do you two respond to this “controversy” given your different ways you two have used your medical degrees and training?

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Heh, this is probably better suited for the Direct Line, our monthly AMA for Barbell Medicine Plus subscribers where we talk about a wider variety of topics. Politics and such, you know how that goes…

Anyway, it’s hard to find details on his training. Best I can tell, he completed medical school and his PhD, but did not do any residency training. That corroborates the no medical licensure thing, as most states require 12-24 months of post-grad training (residency training) to get a medical license. If he never did any residency training and has never held a medical license, then presenting himself as though he did would be a problem. I don’t personally think “physician” or “doctor” does that, but I can understand how people could feel differently.

Nonetheless, his training and experience in healthcare from the public health perspective with the fund of knowledge from medical school is significant. I think it’s reasonable to say his experience treating patients and working within the system is limited, though his knowledge of the system and key variables is good.

FWIW, I don’t know anything about this guy and am not endorsing or blocking him.

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