Under normal circumstances, internist Jenni Levy makes house calls, checking on patients with chronic conditions and serving as what she calls “rolling urgent care.”

The next frontier of injury prevention is occupational exoskeletons — wearable devices that physically assist, augment and support workers and help bolster workplace safety when traditional ergonomic controls are not feasible.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining work in nearly every industry thanks to the increase in accuracy, efficiency and cost-effectiveness that AI-based applications offer. One of the latest industries to benefit is insurance, where applications are now being deployed to help detect and reduce provider fraud through advanced predictive tools.

It’s no secret that return-to-work is an important part of workers’ comp. Getting an injured worker back on the job and back to their full health marks the successful end to a workers’ comp claim and it allows the employee to get back to living their life.

Workers’ comp is singularly ill-equipped to handle COVID-19…but some organizations are making solid progress. The industry’s antipathy towards change, resistance to anything smacking of risk, and rejection of most anything remotely “innovative” ensures many payers, vendors, regulators and other stakeholders won’t be able to handle the fallout from COVID-19.

Dr. Richard Victor, founder of WCRI and senior fellow at the Sedgwick Institute, recently released a book focusing on futuristic scenarios for the workers’ compensation industry in macroeconomic terms. Victor’s book, entitled ​Scenarios for the 2030s: Threats and Opportunities for Workers’ Compensation Systems​, is a wide-ranging and rigorously researched manifesto, addressing everything from the intricacies of labor shortages in the U.S. to health care reform and case shifting.

There is much discussion right now on the impact that COVID-19 (Coronavirus) will have on workers’ compensation. Most of this discussion has focused on the potential for claims activity arising from the virus.

When employees work remotely from home or other locations, the normal rules of course and scope can become complicated and confusing. The same is true of subrogation potential. When the employee is injured in their home, subrogation targets tend to shrivel up and blow away.

The chances of contracting the Coronavirus (also called “COVID-19”) are slim, but the number of those infected is increasing daily. It is only a matter of time before a worker contracts COVID-19 through their place of employment (i.e., a doctor, emergency responder, etc.). After a worker exposed to the Coronavirus contracts the disease, there could be grounds for a valid a workers’ compensation claim for an industrial injury.

The chorus of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret,” Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” Toto’s “Africa,” Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” or Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” could all become common tunes around office bathrooms as employees become increasingly concerned about COVID-19.

No one in the workers’ compensation industry would argue that complying with state and federal regulations isn’t important. Claims professionals need to make sure they’re reporting information about claims to the proper state and federal agencies and they need to make sure their companies are in compliance with workers’ compensation laws.

We are all familiar with the concept of nurse triage to help manage work-related injuries. A new telemedicine concept, doctor triage, takes the idea to the next level. The telemedicine approach reduces costs, increases flexibility for both doctors and patients and allows for consultations 24 hours a day.

The health care industry invests significant resources to create positive experiences. It is well established that patient experience drives engagement, which impacts outcomes. In recent years, the industry has shifted to providing a more holistic approach to health and wellness, with a renewed focus on mental health.

Body temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure. These are the four primary vital signs used by doctors and nurses to measure your body’s most basic functions and detect life-threatening medical problems. Or at least they were until 2001, when the Joint Commission dubbed pain “the fifth vital sign.”

Ever since states started legalizing marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, there has been a debate over drug testing in the workplace. A worker who is using the drug medicinally may fail a drug test and lose their job.