In his presentation Returning Humanity to the California Workers’ Compensation System, clinical and medical psychologist Frank Lucchetti emphasized the importance of rehabilitating the injured worker to a life of productivity.
The relationships among all parties involved in the workers’ compensation settlement should be a primary concern, along with taking precautions to prohibit further impairment during treatment. [...]

Las Vegas Recovery Center Medical Director Mel Pohl focused on the importance of treatment alternatives to opioids for chronic pain in his session, Syndrome Pain and Addiction: Challenges and Controversies. Reviewing the interactions of pain, suffering and addiction as they interface in clients, Pohl underlined how opioids complicate the course of many workers’ compensation cases [...]

In Sex, Sleep, Psych, and Deconditioning, David Freeman and Mark Hyman highlighted the importance of separating legitimate sleeping disorders such as insomnia or Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) from the regular goings-on of daily life or psychological affectations. They recommended using the impairment rating to judge a condition’s intensity and how pervasive [...]

In What Works in Washington State, Irene Suver called for a return to using certified research to support claims, instead of using opinions often based merely on previous opinions. Because a single specialist now is called upon to provide diagnoses across a multitude of medical fields, accuracy has decreased. Suver recommended refocusing to consider the [...]

In her session Healing Addiction in Work Comp: The Hanley Experience, Dr. Barbara Krantz explained the significant role of the neurobiology of addiction in treating and managing chemical dependency. Dr. Krantz explored the bio-neurological effects of chemical dependency, stages of treatment, relapse prevention,  and how research will impact treatment and recovery outcomes, demonstrating the addiction [...]

John Alchemy spoke to professionals willing to invest in what’s fair, reproducible, and sustainable to help renovate California’s workers’ compensation system. Alchemy railed against spiraling costs, subjective dispensing of our limited financial resources, and the diluted value of objective exam findings and science, and advocated joining a new movement and finding a passion for showing [...]

In The Compensable Backache, M.D. Nortin Hadler illustrated the conditions of Regional Low Back Pain (LBP), and the incorrect notion that diagnosis and treatment are the only ways to resolve this injury. In our society, Hadler said, once a physician makes a diagnosis, a person has the option of becoming a patient, [...]