The Experts Who Currently Write for WorstPills.org

Robert Steinbrook, M.D.
Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group
Editor, WorstPills.org and Worst Pills, Best Pills News

Dr. Robert Steinbrook joined Public Citizen as the Health Research Group Director in May 2023. He is available to discuss drug and medical device safety, conflict of interest in medicine and health care, medical journals, health care policy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other federal health agencies, and the protection of human research subjects.

Dr. Steinbrook is Professor Adjunct of Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. Among prior positions, he has been Editor at Large and Online Editor at JAMA Internal Medicine, Deputy Editor and National Correspondent at the New England Journal of Medicine, and a Medical Writer at the Los Angeles Times. He is a graduate of Amherst College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Azza AbuDagga, M.H.A., Ph.D.
Health Services Researcher, Public Citizen's Health Research Group

Dr. AbuDagga has been researching drug safety at the Health Research Group since 2013. She is an expert in analyzing the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. She also conducts research studies related to inmates with serious mental illnesses in the criminal justice system and ethics in clinical trials. Additionally, she uses the National Practitioner Data Bank to conduct research on health care professionals' accountability.

Prior to joining Public Citizen, Dr. AbuDagga conducted numerous health research outcomes studies for drugs related to the respiratory system, oral blood thinners and psoriasis during her tenure at WellPoint. She also has conducted various health policy studies funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Health Research and Quality during her tenure at LeadingAge and IMPAQ International.

She earned her Ph.D. in health policy and administration from Pennsylvania State University, her Master of Health Administration from Ohio State University, and her bachelor's degree in nursing from the Islamic University of Gaza.

Michael Abrams, M.P.H., Ph.D.
Senior Health Researcher, Public Citizen's Health Research Group

Dr. Abrams has over 25 years of clinical and governance research experience in the health sciences and more than 35 peer-reviewed publications. He is especially skilled as a health services researcher focused on brain-based illness, including psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and depression, addictions such as opioid and alcohol use disorders, and degenerative or neurodevelopmental diseases such as dementia and autism.

Dr. Abrams also has served as a director of studies and consensus activities pertaining to national health care strategies at both The National Academy of Sciences and the National Quality Forum, and he is especially knowledgeable about the U.S. Medicaid program.

He earned his M.P.H. degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and his Ph.D. in health policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Nina Zeldes, M.Sc, Ph.D.
Health Researcher, Public Citizen's Health Research Group

Dr. Zeldes is an expert in health care policy, drug and medical device safety, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight. As a health communication expert and patient advocate, her background is in structural and functional discrepancies within health care delivery and health insurance policies.

Prior to joining Public Citizen, she was a Project Manager for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded projects during her tenure as Senior Fellow at the National Center for Health Research, a Visiting Scholar at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, and worked as a health and patient communication expert on a number of international projects in the U.S. and in Europe.

She earned her Ph.D. in medical anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), her Master of Science degree from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and her bachelor’s degree in social science from the University College Dublin (Ireland).

 

Nisha Latchman, PharmD, CCP
Drug Information Consultant, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group

 

Dr. Latchman has over 30 years of experience as a licensed pharmacist. She joined Public Citizen in 2005 as a Drug Information Consultant researching drug safety for the Health Research Group.

She received her PharmD from the University of Kansas and her B.S. in Pharmacy from the Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Long Island University. She is certified by the Joint Board for Certification of Consultant Pharmacists.

Dr. Latchman is also an independent consultant providing clinical and regulatory drug services at several nursing facilities. Prior to joining Public Citizen, Dr. Latchman worked as a hospital pharmacist, a pharmacist manager at a retail chain pharmacy, and an associate college professor for continuing education services focusing on advancing pharmacy education.