Our Mission

OPOC connects Boston’s public defenders with medical providers who can write objective, rigorous medical affidavits on behalf of their clients. After arranging the pairing, OPOC remains available to paired-up medical providers and attorneys to support their advocacy process.

OPOC also facilitates trainings with both attorneys and medical providers regarding the particularities of medical affidavit writing and medical-legal collaborations more generally. Our hope is to increase the rate at which and persuasiveness with which individual defendant’s medical issues are being presented to various decision-makers in the court system. In certain cases, medical issues have been found by courts to be one factor relevant to a fair and proper resolution of the criminal case. The role of the OPOC affidavit is to explain the medical issues clearly and objectively.

We recognize that many of the same inequities affect both the health system and the criminal system. Case by case, collaboration by collaboration, our work is intended to address those inequities. Grown out of the COVID crisis, this project recognizes our interconnectedness and seeks to address a gap in care, especially for those most vulnerable community members.

Hear from David Sanchez — A former Brigham resident & current allergy immunology fellow at Mount Sinai & Co-Founder of OPOC.

OPOC's Medical Leadership Team at Brigham & Women's Hospital 

  • "During COVID, a medical affidavit helped save my client's life. The affidavit explained his acute health issues for all of us in the courtroom. And it explained them with the clarity that only a medical professional could bring. This collaboration is working."

    - Cristina Rodrigues, public defender and OPOC co-founder 

  • “In terms of the impact, I really feel like as physicians we often times feel like the only thing we can offer is trying to treat through giving fluids, giving antibiotics, things like that — when in reality our degree can do so much more.”

    - David Alejandro Sanchez, co-founder of OPOC and former medical resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital

  • "OPOC is designed to bring the lawyers and the doctors together to help save our community. We lose a lot of people in the community because of their untreated mental conditions and physical health reasons. Our job is to try and prevent that - and at the same time help clean up our community and save our people."

    - Victor Ryland, Community Advocate and co-founder of OPOC

  • "With OPOC, it’s been really special to work in an interdisciplinary way to empower clinicians to use their skills to reach beyond the walls of the hospital. In describing the health impacts of incarceration on one person, there is potential for broad-reaching education and impact even for those who are not the immediate recipient of the affidavits. It may benefit whole families, whole communities and whole systems."

    - Aliza Green, infectious disease fellow at Mass General Brigham & former OPOC leader 

  • "My client's need for an affidavit arose quickly when a judge told us that with a medical affidavit he would consider releasing him from a dangerous medical neglect situation. The generosity of medical expertise and time that was provided won't be forgotten by either him or me! The affidavit really gave him the best chance possible."

    - Connor Barusch, a public defender and training director 

  • "Whether someone suffers from major medical or psychiatric diagnosis, it’s essential this information is told by experts. It’s never enough for us to say we have a certain medical history - we must always provide proof. Because of OPOC, our clients are believed."

    - Kaitlin Siempelkamp, Social Worker

  • "Medical affidavits from OPOC have quite literally saved my clients' lives. OPOC has been the driving force helping my clients to finally begin to rebuild trust in the healthcare system and feel that their medical issues are just as urgent and important as anyone else's."

    - Sarah Laughlin, social worker 

  • "As a part of OPOC it has been satisfying to work together with our attorney colleagues to help those who are most vulnerable in the criminal legal system. Physicians can meaningfully impact a case with their expertise, which is a true testament to the privilege we hold as medical professionals. We should feel empowered to help."

    -Sunny Kung, physician specializing in addiction medicine and internal medicine

  • "OPOC doctors composed an affidavit regarding the realities of my client's liver failure. When I produced the affidavit in court, the judge paused on the bench to read it in its entirety. The mood shifted. Attention was on the level of detail and medical explanation the OPOC doctors provided.  My client left the building that day with a resolved case, renewed hope that his life mattered and an ability to focus on his health. "

    - Liz Pardy, public defender  

Our History

OPOC was founded in 2020 as a collaboration between the Diversity & Inclusion Committee at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Internal Medicine Residency and public defenders in the City of Boston.

Since then, OPOC has accumulated a wide network of clinician volunteers. We have coordinated upwards of 40 affidavits for clients in Boston.

OPOC is now housed within the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. We maintain meaningful ties to the Internal Medicine Residency, which remains a key source of volunteers for the program.