AGENDA

Session Title: Hot Topics in Occupational Medicine: Aggravation, Medical Causation and Strength Deficits in Workers’ Compensation.

Speaker: Dr. Jonathon Fields

Jonathon Fields, MD, MBA, MPH is a board-certified physician in Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the owner of Summit Industrial Medicine and part owner of Waverly Industrial Rehab in Waverly, Iowa. After a decade in engineering with IBM and Hitachi, he transitioned into medicine, earning his MD from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and completing residency training in Occupational Medicine, along with a Master of Public Health. Dr. Fields has served in hospital-based occupational health, independent practice, and as an onsite physician for major industry. He is also a senior aviation medical examiner. His clinical focus includes medical causation analysis, impairment evaluation, and evidence-based workers’ compensation medicine.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants should be able to:

1. Differentiate aggravation from exacerbation using the AMA Guides 5th Edition and Iowa workers’ compensation principles.
2. Apply a structured medical causation analysis incorporating diagnosis, mechanism of injury, objective findings, temporal relationship and reasonable medical probability.
3. Identify common errors in speculative medical testimony and distinguish symptoms from diagnosable medical conditions.
4. Identify appropriate documentation of motor weakness, while understanding limitations of MRC grading and AMA Guides strength impairment ratings.