Kim Sue, MD, PhD

@DrKimSue

Medical Director | primary care trained doctor via | medical anthropologist of prisons and addiction| Tweets=compassion❤️💉

New York, NY
Joined November 2011

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  1. Pinned Tweet
    20 Dec 2018

    A short Christmas wish list: 1) people aren’t sent to jail or prison for drug use 2) OTC naloxone 3) overdose prevention sites - legal, funded, ready to use 4) reparations to communities of color ravaged by war on drugs policies. What else am I missing? Too much to ask?

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  2. Retweeted
    18 hours ago

    Reality is that these meds have been shown to reduce overdose risk in correctional settings & during post-release period. Yes, there are complexities. And yes, community needs to do better. But we mustn’t let those reasons prevent us from implementing programs that save lives. 6/

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  3. Retweeted
    20 hours ago

    A court in Virginia takes on the real death penalty: the way inadequate, underfunded and understaffed medical care kills and maims prisons at far greater rates than actual executions.

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  4. 19 hours ago

    Great work, will add that all ED providers can counsel with some pearls if pt declines rx/tx/addiction consult: 1) don’t use alone, make sure others check on you 2) test for fentanyl if possible, go slow 3) ensure naloxone on hand 4) try to avoid polysubstance use

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  5. Jan 4

    In the Crimson Care Clinic I helped found at at Nashua Street Jail, Harvard undergraduates set up MassHealth every week (among so many other things). It’s one critical step among many to ensure care upon returning home.

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  6. Jan 4

    Correctional health=community health. Some key points from report: Medicaid termination unnecessary, enrollment prior to discharge + physical card, with linkages to community - health services available!

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  7. Retweeted

    For the first time IN HISTORY, I have a commitment for hearings on . We’re one step closer to all Americans having access to quality, affordable health care.

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  8. Retweeted
    Jan 3

    "This approach is not a treatment for PWUD, but a treatment for the toxicity of Canada's drug supply and a century of criminalization. Harm reduction in its purest form, protection from the drug policy that is lowering life expectancy across Canada."

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  9. Jan 3

    Read👇- atypical OD presentations in the era of fentanyl/analogues. 31% of 1581 ODs had atypical features incl: rigidity of jaw -could interfere w airway access, chest wall rigidity- with ventilation, stiff fingers - difficult to get pulse oxim. Are you seeing these features?

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  10. Jan 3

    How many people will die in 2019 from lack of access to basic medical care and addiction tx in US jails, prisons and detention centers?? 😡 When ppl are forcibly detoxed off opioids and cravings not treated with MAT, the loss of tolerance can mean using even once can be fatal.

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  11. Retweeted
    Jan 1

    To the list.... - No prior auth for BUP in all 50 - 72 hr law changed to “can dispense/Rx up to 3 days to bridge”/Waiver be gone - Naloxone: OTC AND covered by insurance - Enhanced inpt/outpt reimbursement for evidence based OUD Tx (meds!) - QI for Good Sam Laws

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  12. Jan 2

    Structural violence is exposing those already worse off to even more harms. People who depend on the IHS underserved, historically wronged. My brief time at IHS in Rosebud SD showed me how much chronic poverty affects health including substance use.

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  13. Retweeted
    Jan 1

    This article by is the first to focus on the lives of people after a non-fatal overdose event. this is very important. and difficult to discuss. it's a test of one's capacity to be shocked by the crisis, esp in the

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  14. Retweeted
    Jan 1

    New year. New private health insurance policy. New premiums (probably higher). New deductible (probably higher). New network of doctors (probably narrower). But it doesn't have to be this way. Let's demand a system that works: .

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  15. Jan 1

    Draft of 2019 goals: 1. OAT in all US jails/prisons and low threshold bupe 2. Syringe access in all 50 states 3. Encouraging research/education for tx of drugs besides opioids 4. Legal operating overdose prevention sites in the US What else should we do together?

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  16. 31 Dec 2018

    Benzodiazepine withdrawal is serious, extremely difficult, often overlooked. In a hospital, like alcohol w/d, it is a condition req doctor be present on the floor at all times (both can lead to possibly fatal seizures). In jail, not treating it and neglecting pt—> tragic results

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  17. 31 Dec 2018

    I do believe our efforts now are even more necessary to shift the curve on premature/tragic deaths by overdose. Medication is one powerful tool we have. I counsel patients not interested in OAT about the chronic nature of opioid use dx- to help live a week, a month, years.

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  18. 31 Dec 2018

    Another paper by the same group estimated years of potential life lost (YPLL) as 18 years. 48.5% of the cohort was dead in 1996 (heroin overdose, chronic liver disease, accidents).

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  19. 31 Dec 2018

    This is notably before the era of fentanyl, which makes ongoing use/abstinence cycles even more deadly and dangerous, and before the era of more widespread tx with medication. I think many of us care about the black portion-- the percent who died prematurely.

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  20. 31 Dec 2018

    Some people were eventually able to achieve abstinence (easier with more years). Many periods of yrs of abstinence alternating with use. A quarter still "relapsed" even after 15 years of abstinence. Many were daily drinkers or did other drugs.

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  21. 31 Dec 2018

    I think it's useful to examine this old paper that followed a CA-based cohort of male heroin users over 33 years. Years of heroin use ranged from 0.8-50 years (mean 30.3). Opioid use disorder is a tough, chronic disease. Such a high percentage died.

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