Dr. Robert Steinbrook Named Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group
Dr. Steinbrook’s prior roles include editor-at-large at JAMA Internal Medicine and deputy editor and national correspondent at the New England Journal of Medicine
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Public Citizen announced that Dr. Robert Steinbrook is the new director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. Prior to joining Public Citizen, Dr. Steinbrook served as editor-at-large 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, among other roles. Dr. Steinbrook is also professor adjunct of internal medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.
“Public Citizen’s Health Research Group is a powerful and unflinching leader in the fight to protect patients from the many overreaches of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries,” said Dr. Steinbrook. “In a time of both significant scientific advancement and unprecedented corporate influence, the Health Research Group’s work to stand up to special interests and demand improvements to our regulatory systems is more vital than ever.”
“For more than 50 years, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has held Big Pharma and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to account, forcing dozens of drugs off the market, adding warnings to dangerous drugs and highlighting conflicts of interest — saving tens of thousands of lives in the process,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “We are thrilled that this enormously talented individual will lead our Health Research Group into a new era. Dr. Steinbrook brings a sterling resume, a great analytic mind, and keen sense of justice. That’s exactly what the Health Research Group and America need at a time when Big Pharma is – again – challenging the core commitments to safety and efficacy that have protected generations of Americans from dangerous and ineffective pharmaceuticals.”.”
Dr. Steinbrook 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. His areas of expertise include drug and medical device safety, conflict of interests in medicine and health care, medical journals, health care policy, the protection of human research subjects and the FDA and other federal health agencies.
Founded more than 50 years ago by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group advocates for research-based, system-wide changes to health care policy, with a focus on improving drug safety and transparency and accountability in the drug approval process. Dr. Steinbrook takes over from Dr. Michael Carome, who led the Health Research Group for a decade before retiring in 2023.