AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Disease and Injury Causation, Second Edition

This second edition publication is an essential resource for health care professionals who need to make informed, evidence-based decisions that determine causation for injury and work-related conditions. Users are able to strengthen their opinion by linking clinical findings to a specific cause—whether related to the workplace, genetic makeup, a unique event or a combination of factors. Professionals can provide an informed opinion on workers’ compensation or disability cases based on a careful review of an individual’s clinical findings when linking (or not linking) the condition in question to medical evidence. Features and benefits: Four new chapters: Gastrointestinal, Genitourinary, Obstetric and Hematology-Oncology Updated approaches and references from more than 20 new contributors Implications of unemployment, medication, work aspects and driving Forms that can be used to communicate return to work guidelines Disclaimers to use when writing return to work guidelines Tips on negotiating with patients Current science on functional capacity evaluations Chapters organized by body system, making it easy to use as a reference text for a particular system or diagnosis Tables contain recommended disability durations by diagnosis The Cardiopulmonary chapter has been divided into separate cardiac and pulmonary chapters Tackles the issues of occupational and non-occupational, evidence-based causation Case examples that serve as powerful learning tools to physicians and other health care professionals who provide input to medical determinations