Trump picks Mehmet Oz as head of Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services

'Dr Oz', host of long-running medical TV show, is a former Republican candidate for Senate

Mehmet Oz, the Turkish-American heart surgeon known for his syndicated The Dr Oz Show. AP

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Dr Mehmet Oz for administrator of the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “America is facing a healthcare crisis, and there may be no physician more qualified and capable than Dr Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Mr Trump said in a statement.

The CMS is the federal agency that provides health coverage to more than 160 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Programme and the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Dr Oz, a Turkish-American heart surgeon known for his syndicated The Dr Oz Show, rose to fame shocking audiences with show-and-tell displays of decaying lungs and rotting livers, urging viewers to take care of themselves.

Throughout the show's run, it was vastly criticised for a lack of scientific credibility about the medical claims made, with guests promoting ideas ranging from “alternative” cures for complex ailments, to psychic communing with the dead, to “iridology” – which claims a person's ills can be diagnosed by examining the eyes.

Dr Oz ran for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican in 2022 and received an endorsement from Mr Trump, but lost to David McCormick. His nomination comes after Mr Trump nominated Robert F Kennedy Jr for secretary of health and human services.

Mr Kennedy has long dismissed as an anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist by the Democrats. Mr Trump said Mr Kennedy will “restore these agencies to the traditions of gold standard scientific research, and beacons of transparency, to end the chronic disease epidemic, and to make America Great and Healthy Again”.