Doctors Push Back on Claim That El-Sayed Is Not a Physician

A group of Michigan doctors is pushing back against attempts by Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, to characterize his opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, MD, DPhil, as not being a real doctor because he doesn’t practice medicine in the state.

“Dr. El-Sayed earned his medical degree and, like many of us at some point in our careers, faced a choice about where to direct a life in medicine,” said a letter released Tuesday that was signed by more than 1,000 medical professionals, including 700 physicians. “He chose public health; not because it was the easier path, but because it multiplies what a doctor can do, extending care from one patient at a time to entire cities and states. … We are proud to stand with a colleague who has dedicated his career, in every sense of the word, to the health of our state. We ask our fellow Michiganders to join us in supporting Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for United States Senate.”

For privacy and safety purposes, the letter did not include the signatories’ full names, only their first initial and the first three letters of their last name.

Earlier this month, at the candidates’ first debate, Rogers said El-Sayed was “not really a doctor … Matter of fact, if somebody came into his office and he tried to treat that patient, he’d go to jail.” Fox News host Sean Hannity said something similar during a Republican town hall in Saint Clair Shores, Michigan on Monday: “He calls himself a physician. … He’s not a physician.”

According to his website and LinkedIn profile, El-Sayed graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in biology and political science, earned his medical degree from Columbia University, and a doctorate in philosophy at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He also served as executive director of the Detroit Health Department and director of the Wayne County (Michigan) Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services.

El-Sayed’s campaign points out that he meets the American Medical Association’s definition of a physician, which is someone who “has received a ‘Doctor of Medicine’ or a ‘Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine’ degree or an equivalent degree following successful completion of a prescribed course of study from a school of medicine or osteopathic medicine.”

“As Detroit’s health officer, he rebuilt a department hollowed out by decades of disinvestment, expanded access to care in some of the state’s most underserved neighborhoods, and led the city’s response to public health emergencies most physicians never encounter in an entire career,” the letter stated. “That is medicine, practiced at scale, and it is exactly the kind of clinical judgment Michigan needs in the United States Senate.”

“Abdul’s healthcare agenda reflects that judgment,” the letter continued. “He is committed to lowering the cost of prescription drugs; cracking down on the hospital consolidation that has left too many Michigan communities with fewer options and higher bills; relieving the burden of medical debt that follows our patients long after treatment ends; protecting reproductive healthcare; and defending Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act from further cuts.”