Let Me Help With Your Case

After 45 years of private practice, I have retired from patient care and have started a medical-legal practice. The name of my new endeavor is Physician Case Analysis.

From the beginning, a high percentage of my patients had injuries, and a high percentage of those were parties to related legal proceedings. As a result, I am accustomed to working in a medical-legal setting. I have written many letters outlining exactly what is wrong with a patient, and giving my opinions and recommendations as to causation and treatment. I have given many depositions, and have, on occasion, testified at trial.

Ways I Can Help
There are many ways in which I can help you with your legal practice. I can review client medical records to help determine the extent of injury, what caused the injury, whether treatment to date has been appropriate and medically necessary, and the possible cost and nature of future treatment. I can help develop key questions for direct- and cross-examination, aid with trial preparation, and testify as an expert witness. For catastrophic injuries, such as spinal cord and traumatic brain injury, I can work with an economist on life-care planning.

Additionally I can also assist you when your source of medical opinion is the treating doctor, such as a family doctor or other general practitioner, who may not be an expert in the involved injury. They will often give a generic diagnosis such as “low back strain” when there is evidence of a more specific and severe ailment, such as exacerbation of a pre-existing condition. Examples would include facet arthritis or degenerative disc disease.

Types Of Cases
The types of cases I can help with include personal injury, Social Security disability, and workers compensation. I have given deposition testimony as an expert witness in matters involving musculoskeletal injuries, spinal cord injury, head injury, traumatic brain injury, and regenerative medicine.

I am board-certified in PM&R by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is a branch of medicine recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. It covers a wide range of patients, ranging from those with catastrophic conditions, such as stroke and spinal cord injury, to patients with physical complaints, such as spine and joint pain.

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation treatment involves the treatment of patients with stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic head injury, and similar injuries. The Physiatrist (an M.D. specializing in PM&R) functions as the leader of the rehabilitation team. The team consists of nurses, physical and occupational therapists, psychologists and social workers. The rehabilitation process entails establishing treatment goals, putting in action a plan to achieve those goals, and stopping treatment once the goals have been met or prove to be unmeetable. Communication between team members facilitates the patient’s progress toward meeting the goals, or revising the goals as needed.

Physical Medicine

Physical medicine generally falls into one of two broad categories: “medical,” which involves the use of medications, and “non-operative orthopedics." Non-operative orthopedics involves treatments including x-ray and ultrasound-guided injections and physical therapy. My practice utilized cutting-edge non-operative orthopedic therapies, including injecting dextrose solutions (Prolotherapy), patient rich plasma (PRP), placental derived products, and stem cells.
There is significant overlap between physical medicine treatment and rehabilitation treatment. As with rehabilitation treatment, treating physical medicine patients involves establishing treatment goals, developing a treatment plan, and stopping treatment when appropriate. The rehabilitation team is usually smaller, and may consist only of the Physiatrist and the patient.

Pain Medicine

I also practiced "pain medicine." Although the goal for every patient is to treat the underlying cause of the medical complaint, this is not always possible. Reasons why a condition may not be "cured" include cost, a condition that is degenerative or progressive, the state of current knowledge, or the genetic makeup of the patient. When, after treating the underlying condition, the patient continued to experience problems and discomfort, my practice offered the option to treat the patient’s pain symptoms. This included the use of pain medication, psychological treatment for adjustment to illness, and physical modalities such as ice, heat, and TENS. At one time, my practice ran a CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) accredited outpatient pain program. The program offered medical treatment, education, psychological services, social services, and physical therapy.