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Medical Malpractice Insurance: Study Challenges Industry’s Explanation

The nation’s insurance companies are advancing a legislative agenda to limit liability for doctors, hospitals, HMOs, nursing homes and drug companies that cause injury. Federal and state lawmakers and regulators (and the general public) are being told by medical and insurance lobbyists that doctors’ insurance rates are rising due to increasing claims by patients, rising…
Pain Questionnaire Objectifies Subjective Aspects of Injury

Traditionally, objective measurements of neck and back injuries such as palpable spasms, loss of lordotic curve on x-ray and disc protrusions have been thought reliable as “hard evidence” when measuring the extent of traumatic personal injury and the effectiveness of treatment. Subjective measures of pain and function were criticized as “soft evidence”. In recent years,…
Predicting Chronic Whiplash in Motor Vehicle Collision

By E. Paul Giersch, Attorney at Law A recently published study by researchers in Ontario offers a clinical decision rule for early prediction of long-term whiplash associated disorder following rear end motor vehicle collisions.* It also includes supporting data which quantifies potential risk factors for chronic Whiplash associated disorder. This study has several features which add…
“Whiplash” Injuries – New Study Shows Significant Long Term Effects

By Adler Giersch PS For years the battle has raged between those who maintain strain/sprain injuries of the type referred to in common parlance as “Whiplash” cause only short term health issues and those who maintain the impact on these individuals lives is long term. Insurance companies maintain that only limited short term care is required…
Traumatic Head Injury and Long Term Risk of Depression

Of particular concern to care providers evaluating and treating patients injured in auto accidents is the possibility of head injury. Most individuals who sustain a traumatic head injury diagnosed as a mild concussion will experience no sequelae beyond nine months after the injury incident. That is not always the case however. A study recently published…
How Insurers use Artificial Intelligence to Determine Personal Injury Damages

Over the last few years the use of the computer program, Colossus, to adjust personal injury auto accident claims has spread, virus-like, throughout the insurance industry. This article is to introduce you to what it is and how it impacts what value the insurance company will put on your motor vehicle personal injury claim. Colossus…
Whiplash Victims: Future Risks Include More Than Neck Pain

In the February 2001 issue of The Advocate, we reported on a study from Sweden, published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, which revealed that whiplash victims experienced a three-fold increased risk of neck and shoulder pain at seven years post injury.* In a follow-up article published in the same journal, the authors of the…
Pathological Mechanism at Work in Chronic Whiplash

We recently learned that an abstract paper will be published in the 2001 proceedings of the Cervical Spine Research Society Annual Meeting that potentially breaks new ground in understanding the etilogy of chronic spine pain.1 The abstract, “Whiplash Injury and Occult Vertebral Fracture: A Case Series of SPECT Imaging of Patients with Persisting Pain Following a…
Acupuncture: Ancient Art and Modern Science

By Adler Giersch PS Acupuncture is widely practiced in the United States and through-out the world as a therapeutic intervention for numerous disease processes, including traumatic and non-traumatic musculoskeletal and neurological pathologies. Acupuncture has proved to be effective for relief and resolution of acute pain and chronic pain syndromes related to the full range of traumatically…
A Better Assessment of Head Injury Symptoms Using Questionnaires

Complaints of post-concussion symptoms and head injury are common among populations of auto accident and other trauma victims, particularly during the acute phase of injury. Symptoms frequently involve reports of memory and attention deficit, headaches with and without nausea, double vision, loss of concentration, increase sensitivity to distractions, anger and/or irritability, apathy, etc.. Medical literature…