Pharmaceutical Medicine Expert Witnesses: 7

Dr. Nicholas Ladikos is a Clinical Pharmacist and Drug Regimen Error expert. He started and operationalized system-level programs at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and is also the founder of MedOp Advisors, a concierge medication, nutrition, and health & wellness advisory company.

Dr. Ladikos also serves as a Medical Director for Optum Serve and is a Professor at both Texas Tech University and Arizona College of Nursing. He co-authored numerous papers in the areas of infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacogenomics, geriatrics, and therapies in the lung transplant population. He conducts physician training and clinical staff education regarding medication trends and utilization, identification and mitigation for potential medication fraud, waste and abuse, and collaborates in disease management and population health programs.

Litigation Support - Dr. Ladikos is a subject matter expert in several pharmacy-related areas and serves as an expert witness on a number of Pharmaceutical litigation matters. Numerous hospitals have used his skillset and expertise in medical chart reviews to identify errors in medication preparation and prescribing, drug side effect management, standard of care compliance, continuing education delivery, and personnel assessments.

Areas of Expertise:

Dr. Ladikos currently develops and leads clinical programs that help stakeholders use and advance medication management tools (e.g., formularies, pharmacy, therapeutics committees and medication therapy management), quality metrics, research methodologies, and health information technology. He has experience in medication utilization statistical analyses to demonstrate adherence to evidence-based practice guidelines and inform health program policies.

Dr. Ladikos examines pharmacoeconomic trends to ensure that a cost-effective pharmacy benefit is administered to members, and consults with care management team to provide guidance regarding member goals. 

Merrill S. Wise, MD, is Board-Certified in Psychiatry and Neurology with special qualifications in Child Neurology, and he is certified by the American Board of Sleep Medicine. Involved in the full-time practice of sleep medicine, Dr. Wise has evaluated and managed the full range of Sleep Disorders since 1991.

Dr. Wise evaluates children, adolescents, and adults with the full range of sleep problems and disorders. He is involved with supervision and interpretation of polysomnography (sleep studies), Multiple Sleep Latency Tests (MSLT), Maintenance of Wakefulness Tests (MWT), and integration of these findings with the clinical history in order to develop a diagnosis and treatment plan.

Because of the population served in Memphis, Dr. Wise evaluates a large number of pilots (FedEx world hub), air traffic controllers, commercial drivers and barge pilots, rail engineers, and shift workers. He is experienced in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), narcolepsy, and other disorders of excessive sleepiness, insomnia, circadian rhythm sleep disorders, restless legs syndrome, and parasomnias.  This expertise and experience allows him to analyse and provide valuable opinions on a wide range of sleep-related legal issues.

Litigation Support - Dr. Wise has reviewed a wide variety of cases involving both neurology and sleep medicine for greater than 20 years including report generation, testimony at deposition, and at trial. He has served on numerous national task forces and committees, as well as the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). These experiences have exposed him to the full range of sleep disorders, as well as healthcare systems, best practices and evidence-based standards of care, policies, and the legal aspects of sleep problems and disorders. 

Special Interest and Expertise:  

• Individuals with Excessive Daytime Sleepiness
• Downstream Effects of Sleepiness on
  • Cognitive Function
  • Driving
  • Safety
  • Work
  • Behavioral Regulation

John Budny, PhD, provides expert Toxicology opinions based on recognized and accepted medical knowledge to determine if prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, and drugs of abuse that cause adverse medical events. With a PhD in basic medical science and a 40-year career as a practicing toxicologist, Dr. Budny combines the science of toxicology with medical knowledge to fully understand the ramifications of an adverse medical event caused by prescribing errors, faulty medications, or failure in the health care delivery process.

Dr. Budny has conducted scientific investigations in toxicology and has published the results of his research. In addition to being as an expert witness, Dr. Budny provides scientific contributions by writing book reviews of relevant topics related to toxicology and forensics. He is also on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Toxicology. In his position on the Editorial Board, Dr. Budny reviews manuscripts on general toxicology and forensic topics that are submitted and proposed for publication in the journal. He also writes book reviews that cover the entire breadth of toxicology. 

Litigation Support - Dr. Budny has over 25 years of experience as an expert witness. He has been retained in over 300 cases in which he has opined in reports, depositions, and in court testimony about cause and effect relationships between chemicals and adverse reactions and toxicities. While his forensic toxicology practice is not limited to any specific type of chemical, most of his retention as an expert has been for prescription drugs, illicit drugs, dietary supplements and nutritional products.  

Successfully resolved complex medical issues involving pharmaceuticals and drugs:

William Santoro, MD is board certified in Addiction Medicine and board eligible in Family Medicine. He is the Chief of the Section of Addiction Medicine at Tower Health and was the Medical Director at the Reading Hospital & Medical Center detoxification/rehabilitation program. Dr. Santoro was also the Medical Director at a Methadone Treatment center  for 22 years, until 2021, where he is responsible for prescribing methadone to approximately 950 opiate dependent patients.

Dr. Santoro is the Addictionist on staff at The Reading Hospital & Medical Center within the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He is consulted by hospitalists to care for patients admitted to the hospital with addiction complicating their condition. Dr. Santoro runs an outpatient program treating over the 300 patients with buprenorphine (Suboxone/Sublocade) or Vivitrol maintenance. With an interest in Sports Medicine in 2001, he served as a volunteer physician for the U.S. Olympic Training Team in Lake Placid, New York.

Dr. Santoro has been deposed more than a dozen times in the past several years. He has testified in court numerous times on behalf of the plaintiff as well as for the defense. He has testified in Federal Court and been involved in cases concerning the pharmaceutical industry.

Areas of Expertise:

• All aspects of Addiction Medicine
• Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)
  • Buprenorphine
  • Naltrexone
  • Methadone
• Dual Diagnosis Pain/Addiction

View Dr. Santoro's Consulting Profile.

Wayne H. Grant, PharmD, is a Clinical Pharmacist with over 30 years of pharmacy experience working in or within various practice settings—retail, long-term care, home infusion, sterile products, corrections, hospice, specialty, and hospitals.  

Dr. Grant has prepared and delivered educational programs to physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals based on his extensive experience in multiple disease states. Programs include topics such as Pain Management, COPD, and Motor Neuron Diseases.

Serving as an integral member of multiple pharmacy and therapeutics committees, he has promoted evidence-based interventions while driving quality initiatives and building a highly collaborative consortium among healthcare professionals.  

Earning his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Florida, his Master of Business Administration for Kent State University, and his Bachelor of Science from Ohio Northern University highlights Dr. Grant's drive for education, understanding, and application of pharmacy services.  

Dr. Wayne Grant on Consulting with Attorneys

Litigation Support - Dr. Grant is an expert in pharmacy practice. His expertise in long-term, institutional, infusion, and retail practice allow for an extensive understanding of the various pharmacy sectors. He is responsible for pharmacotherapeutic management, medication safety and efficacy and drug information all which follow federal, state, and local laws. He has provided a variety of expert witness services on behalf of legal professionals, including attorney consultation, case review, case opinion, and written case opinion. 

Areas of Medication Expertise:

View Dr. Grant's Consulting Profile.

Dr. Matthew Lee, MD, RPh, MS. is a Physician, Pharmacist, Pharmacologist and Toxicologist who also practices as an Expert Witness and Legal Strategy Consultant. Specific Benefits Include:

• Increased quality and integrity of written expert reports, based on an expanded knowledge base
• Time savings by only having to coordinate and discuss a case with one expert as opposed to two or more
• Since there is so much overlap between fields in the medical profession it is often hard to determine where one scope ends and another begins. This ambiguity is dramatically decreased , and scope increased by combining physician, pharmacist, and pharmacologist into one
• Communication skills of a pharmacist and experience dealing directly with the lay-public, in addition to the knowledge and background of a physician is extremely beneficial describing technical details to a jury
• Practicing in different realms within the healthcare field has allowed Dr. Lee to integrate the multiple facets giving him a unique and distinct perspective that no other expert has.

Case Experience Includes: