Dr. Martin Shaffer offers medical-legal evaluations and counseling services to the Workers Compensation community in California.

He regularly provides:

• Agreed Medical Evaluations (AME)
• Qualified Medical Evaluations (Panel, Defense and Applicant QMEs)
• Independent Psychological Evaluations (IME)
• Neuropsychological Evaluations
• Presurgical Risk Consultations
• Psychological Consultations and Treatment
• Personal Injury Evaluations/Expert Witness Testimony
• Sports Psychology

He is available for lectures and workshops on various stress topics as well as current Labor Code legislation changes and interpretation/application to medical-legal reporting.

Past lectures include:

• Permanent Psychiatric Impairment Ratings: Using the GAF and WPI
• "Red flags" for Predicting Surgical Outcome with Spinal Surgeries
• AME Evaluations: What to expect from your evaluator
• SOMATIZATION: Is it all in your head?

Available workshop topics for medical legal professional organizations:

• RED FLAGS - how to tell that a claim will have skyrocketing costs at Day 22.
• PSYCHIATRIC INJURIES - how you tell what they are, what to do, and how contain them including such components as diagnosis and treatment considerations, management of the investigative process and other issues.
• SURGICAL RISK SCREENING - how to prevent surgical failures. The cost of failed spine surgery is exorbitant. This workshop shows how to increase the success rate while minimizing costs.
• PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT - what can be accomplished in brief therapy for long term results, when intervention is necessary, alternative therapeutic techniques and early signals that indicate future success or failure.
• CASE MANAGEMENT - reviewing actual problem files with understanding of the patient’s psychosocial background as a tool for case management, with implications for how to direct the claim for successful treatment and closure. Applicable for examiners and supervisors, who frequently request repetition of this for additional skill-building.
• PERSONAL STRESS MANAGEMENT - what can be done when the going gets rough, building resiliency to stress, instant interventions, relaxation techniques, visualization and hypnosis. Live demonstrations can accompany the discussion with personal problem solving.
• CHRONIC PAIN - using the Independent Medical Exam (IME) process to understand why chronic pain patients are failing to recover, how to expedite their return to work and how to orchestrate treatment for rapid case closure.
• CUMULATIVE TRAUMA (CT) CLAIMS - understanding different types of CT claims, their management, defense and handling. Learn what information is needed by evaluators to help you make realistic decisions--for acceptance vs defense of CT claims. Treatment issues are explained.