Mastering Medical Legal Report Writing: Mitigating Implicit Bias

Available On-Demand

Recorded on November 17, 2023

Mastering Medical Legal Report Writing: Mitigating Implicit Bias

Delve into the intricacies of medical legal report writing and unlock your potential to create reports that withstand scrutiny, effectively communicate findings, and serve as compelling evidence in legal proceedings. Understand the impact of unconscious bias, stereotyping, and discrimination on medical assessments, and gain insights into how these biases can inadvertently influence perceptions and decision-making, leading to disparities in healthcare strategies. Learn practical techniques to mitigate implicit bias in your evaluations and report writing. You'll also examine the evaluation and rating of permanent disability resulting from industrial breast cancer cases to understand how gender bias can potentially impact an assessment of the impairment resulting from breast cancer and its treatment. Learn to author medical legal reports that prioritize accuracy and fairness, in alignment with the highest standards of ethical medical practice.

Led by esteemed experts in the field, this course combines in-depth knowledge, practical insights, and interactive learning to empower you as a physician. 

Learning Objectives:

At the completion of this activity, the learner will be able to:

  • Recognize and discuss differences in human experience, as well as implicit or unconscious bias, stereotyping, and discrimination, and the ways in which unconscious bias can unintentionally impact perceptions and decision-making, including in medical evaluations and reporting, and lead to disparities in health care strategies, to help eliminate or reduce implicit bias in medical evaluations and reporting
  • Identify potential racial bias, in which an apportionment rating is made based on an assumption about a risk factor related solely to the injured worker’s race, and discuss strategies to mitigate racial bias
  • Identify potential gender bias, in which an apportionment rating is made based on an assumption about a risk factor related solely to the injured worker’s gender, and discuss strategies to mitigate gender bias
  • Examine evaluation and rating of permanent disability resulting from industrial breast cancer, taking into account the ways in which gender bias could potentially impact an assessment of the impairment that results from breast cancer and its treatment

Accreditation:

The Center for Occupational and Environmental Health is accredited by the California Medical Association to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Center for Occupational and Environmental Health designates this online enduring material for a maximum of 3.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 12983, for 3.25 contact hours. 

The UC Berkeley Center for Occupational and Environmental Health is a DIR DWC approved QME Continuing Education Course Provider (Provider No. 420). Qualified Medical Evaluators may report up to 3.25 hours of credit for QME reappointment.

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Audience

This educational activity is intended for Qualified Medical Evaluators (QMEs), clinicians including MD/DO, physician assistants, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and others involved in the California Workers' Compensation system.

Registration Fees

Course Registration: $75.00

Click here to learn about the other courses in the series.

Course Format

This course is a recorded, on-demand course offering, made available online through Canvas Instructure. Once purchased, you will have access to the course for 365 days. This course will expire on September 30, 2026, regardless of purchase date. All sales of on-demand online classes are final. No refunds will be made for cancellations. 

Accessibility

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) to fully participate in this course, please contact Will Bellamy at (510) 642-8365 or wbellamy@berkeley.edu.

Dr. Steven Feinberg:

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Speaker Biography:

Dr. Steven Feinberg is Board Certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the American Board of Pain Medicine and the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He is a California Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME). Dr. Feinberg is a past president (1996) of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. He served as a longtime member of the Board of Directors of the California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery (CSIMS) and served as Year 2001 President. In 2006, he received the Silver Scalpel Award from CSIMS. He serves on the Board of Directors of the American Chronic Pain Association.

Michelle Meyer

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Speaker Biography:

Michelle Meyer is Director of Continuing Education at the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), where she co-chairs the COEH Diversity Working Group. She began her health and safety career when she joined COEH in 2017 after working at multiple tech start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Michelle graduated from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2013. 

Hon. Therese M. da Silva

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Speaker Biography:

Since 2012, Therese da Silva has served as Workers' Compensation Judge (WCJ) at the Division of Workers’ Compensation in Oakland, the busiest venue for litigation in the northern half of California. She's had several decisions reach the Court of Appeal, most of which have been upheld. Past speaking engagements include a variety of topics tailored to the needs of applicant's attorneys, claims adjusters, qualified medical evaluators, as well as other WCJ's during DWC’s annual judge training. Judge da Silva has been of member of DWC QME Quality Committee since its inception and she is an active contributor to other industry organizations. Judge da Silva opines that the best part of her job is interacting with professionals who truly care about resolving the pressing and often difficult issues facing injured workers.

CAMILA DE PIEROLA, MPH

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Speaker Biography:

Camila is a passionate advocate for social justice and health equity and resident at the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program. Throughout her education, she has focused on advocating for marginalized communities and has tied that vision to her health background by dedicating herself to learning and researching how to best promote health equity across the healthcare system and at academic institutions. Camila graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a B.A. in Psychology in 2020, and recieved her MPH from the University of California, Berkeley in 2023. 

Laura Chiyono Rosenthal, Esq.

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Speaker Biography:

Laura Chiyono Rosenthal is a certified specialist in workers' compensation law and shareholder with Meechan, Rosenthal & Karpilow, P.C. Ms. Rosenthal's greatest influence was her mother, a teacher, who empowered her to champion workers. Her grandparents were Japanese plantation workers in Hawaii, from whom she inherited a strong work ethic and dedication to family. She volunteers for and serves on many boards and committees, and teaches legal writing as an adjunct law professor. In 2023, she was selected to the Northern California Super Lawyers list, as well as the Top Injured Workers Attorney list by Workers Injury Law Group, a national organization. When she is not working or volunteering, she enjoys time with her family, friends, her beloved French bulldog Koa Blue, and an unreasonably large shoe collection.

Bhavesh Robert J. Pandya, MD, MPH

Photo of Bhavesh Robert J. Pandya, MD, MPH

Speaker Biography:

Dr Pandya is a Physician who is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He has been in Medical Practice in California since 1996. He currently is a Physician Lead at Kaiser Permanente for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, where he has also served as Chief of Service for his Dept in the past. He is a Qualified Medical Evaluator for the Division of Workers Compensation (DWC) for the State of California since 2003 and currently serves on the DWC’s QME Report Quality Committee. He has been an Expert Reviewer for the Medical Board of California for the past 10 years. He was selected as a Subject Matter Expert in Occupational Medicine to serve on the American Board of Preventive Medicine’s National Taskforce to help update the blueprint content for the Occupational Medicine Board Examination. His is currently a Director on the International Academy of Independent Medical Evaluators (IAIME) Board of Directors.