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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Physical therapists often treat patients who are off work or on restricted duty due to an injury or illness. At the end of treatment these patients return to a physician who often has minimal understanding of the patient’s job demands or functional ability and must many times make return-to-work decisions with less than adequate information. In the typical outpatient setting, many patients have not been off work long enough to warrant a full 3-4 hour Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE). As a result, most return-to-work decisions are made without the use of objective functional information. A Mini-FCE, or brief work-related functional screen, can provide physicians with important functional information as part of their progress or discharge notes.

In this Webcast, our special guest, Deborah Lechner, Founder and President of ErgoScience Inc, Birmingham, Ala, will share how to implement the Mini-FCE and revolutionize your practice.

Deborah Lechner, PT, MS

Deborah Lechner is Founder and President of ErgoScience Inc, Birmingham, Ala. She has more than 25 years of clinical experience as well as an extensive research background. From 1988 to 1993, Lechner developed and validated a state of the art functional capacity evaluation (FCE), the Physical Work Performance Evaluation (PWPE), as part of her research responsibilities as a research associate professor with the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). When the results of the research were found positive, ErgoScience® was formed to commercialize the service.

Lechner brings to the FCE process a solid grounding in biomechanics and kinesiology from her experience with computerized gait analysis and instruction in kinesiology. Her graduate training at the Massachusetts General Institute also has had a powerful influence on her approach to FCE development as the program emphasized standardization, objectivity, reliability and validity in clinical measurement. More about Lechner can be found online.