Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Robert Steinbrook
Outrage of the Month: Vaccine Chaos and the Resurgence of Measles
Health Letter, September 2026 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter. As of Aug. 20, 2026, 2,777 confirmed measles cases had been reported in the United States this year; 2,289 confirmed cases were reported in all of 2025.
Outrage of the Month: Artificial Intelligence and Drug Prescribing
Health Letter, July 2026 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group (A version of this column was published in the July 2026 issue of Worst Pills, Best Pills News) In January 2026, Utah launched a pilot program with an artificial intelligence (AI) company to allow the firm’s proprietary AI healthcare platform to autonomously refill prescription medications for people in the state with certain common conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
Outrage of the Month: The FDA, Peptides and RFK Jr.
Health Letter, May 2026 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: Chaos and Dysfunction at the Food and Drug Administration
Health Letter, April 2026 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: CDC Funding of a Troubling Guinea-Bissau Hepatitis B Vaccine Study
Health Letter, February 2026 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: Senselessly Undermining the Success of Hepatitis B Vaccination
Health Letter, January 2026 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: The FDA, Autism, Leucovorin and Cerebral Folate Deficiency
Health Letter, December 2025 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: Protecting Americans From Risky Drugs Made Overseas
Health Letter, November 2025 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group (An earlier version of this column was published in the September 2025 issue of Worst Pills, Best Pills News) When medications manufactured overseas are sold in the United States, the assumption is that they are as safe and effective as drugs made in this country, regardless of where they are made and whether the drug is brand name or generic.
Outrage of the Month: Mitigating the Damage From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Assault on Federal Vaccine Policy
Health Letter, September 2025 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter. In May 2025, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F.
Outrage of the Month: Patient Deaths From a Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Gene Therapy
Health Letter, August 2025 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Tidbits - May 8- Reader Comments: 50 Years After Vietnam War End; Largest May Day in US; Birth Rates Falling; Israel War Cabinet Approved Plan To Seize Entire Gaza Strip; “It’s Time” People’s Peace Summit of Palestinians and Jews in Jerusalem; More | Port
Tidbits – May 8- Reader Comments: 50 Years After Vietnam War End; Largest May Day in US; Birth Rates Falling; Israel War Cabinet Approved Plan To Seize Entire Gaza Strip; “It’s Time” People’s Peace Summit of Palestinians and Jews in Jerusalem; More Published May 8, 2025 I Don't Know About Due Process -- Cartoon by Dr. James MacLeod Re: May Day 2025: The Current Installment of an Annual Remembrance (Dan Morgan) Re: The Best Signs of This Year’s May Day Protests (David Berger) Re: Labor Goes...
Lenacapavir, a Twice-Yearly Injectable Drug for HIV Prevention That Should be Widely Available
Health Letter, May 2025 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is taken to reduce the risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection from sex or intravenous drug use. Before starting prophylaxis, people must have a negative HIV test, and their HIV-negative status must be confirmed during treatment. PrEP does not protect against other sexually transmitted infections.
Research Misconduct and Medical Journals | Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics | Cambridge Core
Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-2wr7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-02T13:35:00.398Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2025 Howard Bauchner [Opens in a new window] , Show author details Keywords researchmisconductscientific misconductjournals and research misconduct Type Symposium Information Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , First View , pp.
Outrage of the Month: The FDA’s Long-Overdue Ban on Red Dye No. 3 in Food and Oral Drugs
Health Letter, February 2025 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter. In January 2025 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally banned the use of Red Dye No. 3 in food, beverages, dietary supplements and oral drugs.
Outrage of the Month: The Continuing Influence of Industry Payments to U.S. Physicians
Health Letter, November 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: Expanded FDA Approval of a Gene Therapy for Muscular Dystrophy
Health Letter, October 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: a Senior FDA Official Regulated Medical Devices While His Wife’s Law Firm Represented Their Manufacturers
Health Letter, September 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: Private Equity Firms: Stripping Hospital Assets and Threatening Patient Safety
Health Letter, August 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of Continuing Medical Education
Health Letter, July 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
The Impella Left Ventricular Assist Device: a Problematic Heart Pump Beset by Problems
Health Letter, June 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group The Impella heart pump is a miniaturized left ventricular assist device, the first model of which was marketed in the United States in 2008. Threaded into the heart through an artery in the leg, the catheter-based device pumps blood from the left ventricle (the main pumping chamber of the heart) into the aorta (which distributes oxygenated blood to the body).
Lessons From the Withdrawal of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Drug AMX0035 (RELYVRIO)
Health Letter, May 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group In April 2024, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals announced that it would withdraw AMX0035 (sodium phenylbutyrate and taurursodiol, sold under the brand name RELYVRIO) from the market.
Updates on New Alzheimer’s Disease Drugs
Health Letter, April 2024 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group Biogen has announced that it will give up ownership of the controversial Alzheimer’s disease drug aducanumab (ADUHELM) and withdraw it from the U.S. market. As the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should never have approved aducanumab, the announcement was welcome news.
Outrage of the Month: The Philips Respironics Recall of Ventilators and Positive Airway Pressure Machines
Health Letter, December 2023 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
Outrage of the Month: Public Comments to Medicare Marred by Financial Conflicts of Interest
Health Letter, October 2023 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter. Medicare national coverage determinations are made through an evidence-based process that includes public participation.
Outrage of the Month: FDA Approval of Lecanemab for Alzheimer’s Disease
Health Letter, August 2023 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter. In early July 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to the drug lecanemab to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Outrage of the Month: Sackler Family Donations to the National Academy of Sciences
Health Letter, July 2023 By Robert Steinbrook, M.D. If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter.
The Rita Redberg Era at JAMA Internal Medicine
On June 30, 2023, Rita Redberg steps down as Editor of JAMA Internal Medicine. We, the senior editors, write to recognize her achievements over the past 14 years. On behalf of the entire editorial team, we thank Rita for her creative and tireless leadership and valued friendship. When Rita took over as Editor in 2009, this journal was known as the Archives of Internal Medicine and had an impact factor in the single digits.
Outrage Of The Month: FDA Approval of Brexpiprazole for Agitation Symptoms Associated With Dementia Due to Alzheimer’s Disease - False Hopes for Patients and Families? - Public Citizen
Health Letter, June 2023 By Nina Zeldes, Ph.D., and Robert Steinbrook, M.D. If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention! Read what Public Citizen has to say about the biggest blunders and outrageous offenses in the world of public health, published monthly in Health Letter. Agitation symptoms associated with dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease are a frequent and challenging clinical problem. Better treatments are needed.
The Accelerated Approval of Aducanumab for Treatment of Patients With Alzheimer Disease
In June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm, Biogen), an amyloid-β–directed antibody, for the treatment of patients with Alzheimer disease. As the approval was based on a reduction in amyloid-β plaques observed during clinical trials, not a clinical end point, the FDA required a postapproval trial to verify whether the treatment is beneficial to patients.
Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care
In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, there is a timely and important study about the association between eligibility for Medicare at age 65 years and racial and ethnic disparities in access to care and health in the US.1 Using the “natural experiment” of Medicare eligibility, a regression discontinuity design, and information from 2 federal databases, Wallace and colleagues1 found that immediately after age 65 years, disparities between White and Black adults and between White and...
Conflicts of Interest and Authors of Commentaries in Medical Journals
Editorial August 16, 2021 JAMA Intern Med. Published online August 16, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.4587 Full Text Medical journals are relied on as trusted sources of medical information.
Lessons From the Success of COVID-19 Control in Taiwan
Taiwan, an island nation of about 24 million people, has been extraordinarily successful in containing COVID-19. As of March 2021, there had been only 10 deaths and slightly more than 1000 cases. People live without fear of SARS-CoV-2.1 Even as the pace of vaccinations accelerates, there was still a 7-day moving average of more than 60 000 new COVID-19 cases and 1000 deaths a day in the US in late March 2021, daily totals that were comparable with those during the summer 2020 peak.
Another Reason for Greater Transparency at the US Food and Drug Administration
In 2010, a transparency task force at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that the agency disclose more information about marketing applications for medical products.1 An important goal was to increase the completeness and accuracy of the public information about drugs and other products, including the reasons that some applications are not approved.
Moving Patient Care Forward in the Biden Era
When Joseph Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021, the chaos of the Trump era1 should eventually begin to fade and the formidable task of controlling and ending the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic must move forward in earnest. The speed and effectiveness of the response is likely to define the Biden era.
Filtration Efficiency of Face Masks Used by the Public During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In November 2020, the US was averaging more than 1 million new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases per week, an astounding number. To make progress against the pandemic, routine and universal use of face masks throughout society is essential.
A US election victory for science and public health
Robert Steinbrook, professor adjunct Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA robert.steinbrook{at}yale.edu Joe Biden brings Trump era to an end On 20 January 2021, the Trump era in the United States will end.1 Democratic president-elect Joe Biden will take office as the 46th president of the US. Vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, a senator from California and the daughter of immigrants, will be the first woman and person of colour to hold the office.
Contact Tracing, Testing, and Control of COVID-19-Learning From Taiwan
|
Taiwan is a country of about 24 million people, 81 miles off the coast of mainland China. As of late April 2020, Taiwan had about 330 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 6 deaths. By comparison, the US had about 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 60 000 deaths.
By Robert Steinbrook, Tom Huang Verified
|
JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association)
Verified
The High Price of the New Hepatitis C Virus Drugs
Although the development of effective, oral medications for chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) is a scientific triumph, the high price of the newest, directly acting antiviral agents, simeprevir and sofosbuvir, has sparked a much-needed debate about the fair pricing of pharmaceuticals.
Decreasing Medicare Spending on Prescription Drugs
In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Feldman and colleagues1 report that Medicare spending on insulin for patients with diabetes was an estimated $7.8 billion, which is $4.4 billion more than the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services might have spent by using the prices negotiated by the US Department of Veterans Affairs and their formulary restrictions.
Lobbying Expenditures, Campaign Contributions, and Health Care
All the President’s Men, the 1976 film about the Watergate scandal, popularized the phrase “follow the money” as a way to connect the dots between expenditures and outcomes in politics and government. Although the money trail is often informative, it may not provide convincing evidence about the influence of cash on specific election, legislative, and policy outcomes.
Ending Surprise Medical Bills
A surprise medical bill refers to unexpected charges incurred when a patient with health insurance receives care from a physician, hospital, or medical transport service that is not part of the insurer’s network. These charges can arise in an emergency, when a patient may not have the ability to choose the emergency department, the physicians, or the ambulance service.
The European Medicines Agency and the Brave New World of Access to Clinical Trial Data
[Skip to Content Landing] Commentary Mar 11, 2013 JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(5):373-374. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.3842 Research Letter The First 2 Years of the European Medicines Agency's Policy on Access to Documents: Secret No Longer Peter Doshi, PhD; Tom Jefferson, MD Research Letter Impact of Attending Physician Workload on Patient Care: A Survey of Hospitalists Henry J. Michtalik, MD, MPH, MHS; Hsin-Chieh Yeh, PhD; Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD; Daniel J.
Increasing Transparency at the US Food and Drug Administration
People who do not follow the activities of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) closely might be surprised to learn that the agency does not publicly disclose applications for new drugs and therapeutic biologics. The applicants may publicly disclose their applications, such as in press releases or in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and usually do.
Paying for Cancer Care
In a little-known quirk, 11 cancer centers in the United States are exempt from the prospective payment system (PPS) that Medicare uses to pay hospitals for inpatient and outpatient care.
Industry Payments and Physician Prescribing
The Open Payments database at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services continues to shine a bright light on the association between industry payments to physicians by drug and medical device companies and prescribing.
Lisa M. Schwartz, MD, MS, 1963-2018
On November 29, 2018, 1 day before the accompanying Research Letter1 was accepted for publication, the senior author, Lisa M. Schwartz, MD, MS, died, following a lengthy illness.2 A frequent contributor of important research and opinion articles to JAMA Internal Medicine and many other medical journals, Schwartz was a bright star of the medical profession. More importantly, she was an incredibly kind and compassionate person and physician, always looking out for others.
Continuing Problems With Financial Conflicts of Interest and Clinical Practice Guidelines
In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, 2 studies document the continuing problems with financial conflicts of interest and clinical practice guidelines. In 1 study, Kahn and colleagues1 found that 91 (56.9%) of 160 authors of 18 guidelines related to 10 medications with high revenue had financial conflicts of interest. Although 66 of these conflicts were disclosed in the guidelines, 25 were not. Many of the undisclosed payments were $10 000 or more.
Interstate Association of State Firearm Laws With Suicide and Homicide
Firearm death rates vary widely between states, as do the strength of their firearm laws. The overall death rate from firearm injury in 2015 was 11.3 per 100 000; rates in the contiguous 48 states ranged from a low of 3.1 in Massachusetts to a high of 20.4 in Kentucky.1 If the upward trend in deaths from firearm injury in the United States is to be reversed—there were 7.9% more deaths in 2015 than in 20141–then the death rates in each state must decrease.
Healthcare in Trump’s first year
As year one of the Trump era in the United States draws to a close on 20th January, medicine and healthcare remain on a seemingly endless rollercoaster ride. The future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and payment reform are uncertain, and women’s access to reproductive healthcare has suffered. There are ongoing concerns about the scientific independence of federal health agencies and budget support for their programmes.
Sharing Medicine—A JAMA Internal Medicine Series
In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, we launch a series on “Sharing Medicine.” Encompassing the mutual decisions by physicians and patients that are often referred to as “shared decision making,” sharing medicine describes a broader ecology of the sharing of knowledge, data, skills, and experiences within the medical profession, with patients, and with the public and society. The Sharing Medicine series begins with 7 Viewpoints, starting in this online issue1 and continuing weekly online.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Robert
Contact Robert, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack