Matthew Cortland, they Profile picture
Lawyer, immunocompromised, disabled, writer, public health nerd | Then: SSI. Now: data & policy, disability, healthcare. they 🏳️‍🌈
Joanna (They/ Them)🌱 Profile picture joyfulnoyz 😷 #COVIDIsAirborne Profile picture 2 subscribed
Oct 2, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
[cw trans slurs, misogyny]

hey, #medtwitter, if anyone knows who this guy is, slide into my DMs. (I'll provide a Signal # if you want encryption & disappearing messages) I'll file the complaint with the board of medicine myself, your fingerprints won't be anywhere on it. [cw rape apologist, misogyny]

Because if you know who this is? And you're not doing anything about it? The very least you could do is let someone else take action.

Sep 28, 2018 7 tweets 3 min read
Yesterday, @cosetthetable publicly named a UNH athletics employee who sexually harassed her & submitted Title IX complaints to both USA Fencing & UNH. In deciding to speak out, she had to weigh the risks, including the risk of legal action against her (ie. defamation) 1/ When Trump calls for "strengthening" libel laws, it's because he wants to silence those survivors who wish to come forward. He wants to turn defamation into an even sharper weapon to cut down those who dare defy the violence of patriarchy. 2/

nytimes.com/2018/01/10/bus…
Sep 28, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
I get the cynicism & nihilism – I really do

But here's the thing: without healthcare I'm dead pretty quickly. This raging asshole, Kavanaugh, will overturn the ACA. I'll die - along with many, many other chronically ill disabled folx.

So call your senators anyway. Be cynical.. BUT ask your Arizona people to call Jeff Flake, and tell him to vote no. Your Alaska people to call Murkowski, your Maine people to call Collins. (202) 224-3121.
Sep 28, 2018 4 tweets 1 min read
Our federal courts have largely held. They've been slowly eroded as a POTUS who is, in all likelihood, a Russian plant, has nominated judges picked by fringe extremists & approved by a Senate that represents a radical minority of the population. But they've mostly held– until now I've used some of the precious little good time I get to pursue an advocacy strategy of mobilizing comments on administrative regulations. I know that sounds geeky af – that's because it is. POTUS acts mostly through agencies & departments. That bureaucracy has to issue rules
Sep 27, 2018 6 tweets 1 min read
Corey Booker starts with a question immediately: "you drank on weekdays, yes or no?"

Kav blunders around for an answer. And then tries talking over Booker. Booker pushes back. Booker: Are you saying Dr. Ford is part of an orchestrated political hit? she's a political operative?
Kav: My family has no ill-will towards Dr Ford.
Sep 18, 2018 5 tweets 2 min read
I’ve traded away my privacy around my own deeply personal medical issues for the chance – the mere hope really – that maybe someone will listen, will learn.

This is what validation feels like: I was being worked up in the ED one night for a small bowel obstruction, the imaging was _very_ concerning.

The surgical team came through, reviewed the EMR, peppered me with questions, felt my abdomen, and then left.

Except the surgical resident came back in a minute later.
Sep 18, 2018 6 tweets 2 min read
Terrified to open my email, the @mattbc story. I responded to the medical email.
Sep 17, 2018 4 tweets 1 min read
I look at the contempt some professionals on here hold patients in, and how popular those users are, and it makes me so sad

And the thing is, the patients you mock and berate? their choices are, more often than not, constrained and driven by the systems y'all run or benefit from When it's this hard to navigate the health care "system" is it any wonder people turn to alternative medicine? Is it any wonder they'll see an ND even if homeopathy...look, water, as a matter of objective scientific fact, doesn't have memory.
Sep 17, 2018 7 tweets 3 min read
Welcome to Evidence 101, today we'll be discussing the basics through the lens of this wildly inaccurate tweet.

They're saying that the first-hand account of a woman somehow just isn't evidence. They're wrong. It's called "testimonial evidence." There's also "documentary evidence" – evidence in the form of documents. The notes of the therapist? Those are documentary evidence. In a court that documentary evidence might be accompanied by testimonial evidence from the therapist explaining their context, etc.
Sep 17, 2018 4 tweets 3 min read
On the application for my law license, I HAD to disclose the library fine I paid as a teen boy. Had I failed to disclose, I would've flunked the character & fitness background check

#Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary committee, under oath, he had never sexually harassed anyone Why is that?

Because @brooks_rosa's opinion is the minority view. we all understand that a nominee answering "yes, as a teen I was guilty of false imprisonment and assault" is disqualifying for a seat on the highest court in the land.
Sep 17, 2018 6 tweets 3 min read
This is the comms director for @SenMikeLee, one of the people trying to destroy Professor Ford. Here @conncarroll intimates that the absence of the name "Kavanaugh" in the therapist's notes is somehow suspect. It is standard for therapists to avoid using names in these situations I was taught that as an :undergraduate:

You can confirm it for yourself with a quick google search
Sep 16, 2018 7 tweets 2 min read
Thank you all for your support, I can't express how much it means to me

'15 was a bad year. Spent a month inpatient, on TPN for 5 months & then had surgery to remove what was left of my terminal ileum. I was supposed to feel better by now, but...

We had a plan. I did all of the legwork I could, despite running into roadblock after roadblock after roadblock – because "patient empowerment" is an empty slogan. This is the reality:

Sep 16, 2018 5 tweets 3 min read
I am a man. I am a lawyer. And the only thing I'm worried about is the GOP's insistence on putting sexual predators on the bench. Why? Because I have never tried to rape someone. As a man and as a lawyer, I believe Professor Christine Blasey Ford. Her account is highly credible. She knew what would happen when she came forward – she knew they would do everything in their power to destroy her. She spoke out anyway.

washingtonpost.com/investigations…
Sep 14, 2018 6 tweets 3 min read
Manafort flipped. This is the "statement of the offenses" in which Manafort confesses to doing the crimes...

assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4883… This first count #Manafort admits to is violation of 18 USC § 371, "Conspiracy Against the United States."

What does that mean? He conspired to commit a crime against the US or to defraud the US:
Apr 14, 2018 12 tweets 3 min read
When the professor I admired most, a brilliant JD, told me she was disappointed in me as I struggled to survive a Crohn's flare because I wasn't 'consistently working up to my potential' it was 💔. I gave up. That was the moment ableism won. I was doing the best I could – I still am. On $750 per month, with a $2k asset cap, with challenging changes to meds and without all of the medically necessary treatment I've been prescribed...

Apr 9, 2018 31 tweets 9 min read
Bunch of folks asked for my take on the NYT antidepressants piece:
Here's the short version: oh fuck everything about this bullshit.
Thread for the longer version. First, you should know that I'm extraordinarily sensitive to changes in psychotropic medications. That sensitivity has put me in the ED about half a dozen times? It took me about a year to discontinue lexapro, using the liquid formulation to titrate slowwwwwwly
Mar 3, 2018 11 tweets 3 min read
So it's important to comment, but if you're going comment, do so well. What's that mean? I'm glad you asked. [thread] Why should you listen to me?
JDs are trained to work w/ regulatory materials: read, understand, comment on. (Although I am not your lawyer.) I focus on healthcare & healthcare adjacent issues. But you don't have to rely on me, here are the main sources that inform my approach
Feb 21, 2018 7 tweets 3 min read
These junk plans have lifetime caps, won't cover anything they call a pre-existing condition & don't have to cover the basics – like meds. They're going to try to trick folks into buying them with very low prices. Don't be fooled. Because if you get sick? They'll ruin you. .@lpackard didn't plan to get sick. She didn't know she was going to get diagnosed with cancer. But it happened anyway and she needed care in order to stay alive. (click on her tweet to read more about the pre-ACA plan she had)
Feb 10, 2018 29 tweets 15 min read
Here's how #HR620 will begin dismantling the #ADA, excluding us from public life, and why it's imperative we get all the attention we can over the next few days. #CripTheVote #HandsOffMyADA #HR620 is a short bill, its about four pages long. It was introduced by @HouseGOP Rep. @JudgeTedPoe of Texas. Ted Poe is an asshole. Unfortunately, there are over 100 cosponsors of this piece of trash, including 11 @HouseDemocrats.
jonathanturley.org/2009/11/17/sha…
Feb 7, 2018 17 tweets 3 min read
I think these are the 3 most problematic CMS proposals wrt opioids
• Starting to crack down on opioid 'potentiator' drugs – like gabapentin & pregabalin.
• Limiting opioids to 90 MME per day.
• Making it more difficult for patients to fill two or more long-acting opioids. Here's how CMS summarizes: Enhancing the OMS by adding additional flags for high risk beneficiaries who use “potentiator” drugs (such as gabapentin and pregabalin) in combination with prescription opioids. OMS already flags concurrent benzodiazepine use.