More than 30 medical specialists attended WorkCover WA’s first hand and wrist workshop on Tuesday 15 May, with feedback indicating that the forum was both informative and useful.

The Evaluating Permanent Impairment of the Hand and Wrist workshop was organised specifically to increase the knowledge of medical specialists who conduct permanent impairment evaluations of hand and wrist injuries in workers’ compensation cases.

Megan Burley, Senior Project Officer in the Corporate Relations Branch at WorkCover WA, said feedback from the event revealed that attendees valued the session and that most would like to see additional information on case studies and examples.

“Certainly the overall feedback was that the session was extremely useful and delegates requested more learning opportunities in the future to improve their evaluation skills,” she said.

The workshop was conducted by Dr Alan Home who has been a certified independent medical examiner of the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners for over five years.

“WorkCover WA acknowledges that evaluating permanent impairment of the hand and fingers is a complex task and is committed to distributing further information in this area to increase the skills and knowledge of medical practitioners,” Ms Burley added.

“It’s pleasing to report that overall, attendees strongly agreed that their ability to evaluate permanent impairment of the hand and wrist will be improved as a result of the workshop, with one delegate commenting that he now understood why he had made mistakes in past assessments.”

WorkCover WA will issue the first of its quarterly e-newsletters aimed specifically at medical specialists in June. To subscribe to this on-line publication, please email gemma@shinecommunications.com.au and write ‘Medical newsletter’ in the subject heading.

For information about upcoming training and events check our Events Calendar at http://www.workcover.wa.gov.au/Returning+to+Work/Calendar+of+Events/Default.htm