MDGuidelines Offers New Predictive Modeling Feature

Industry-Changing Technology Provides More Accurate

Return-to-Work Durations for Disability and Workers� Compensation Cases

WESTMINSTER, Colorado (June 25, 2009) -- Two grocery checkers--a 28-year-old female triathlete and a 53-year-old male with diabetes--each break an ankle on the same day. The two injuries are identical. Which employee will return to work sooner? Is there anything you can do to help speed recovery for either or both?

Closely predicting return-to-work durations for disability, workers� compensation, and other leaves of absence is a challenge for employers, insurers, third-party administrators, healthcare practitioners and even the patients themselves. Many factors can influence recovery times, but until now, return-to-work guidelines have been based only on the primary medical condition.�

Reed Group, the world�s most trusted provider of return-to-work information, now offers MDGuidelines.com with a next-generation Predictive Disability Durations tool. The new predictive model will help everyone in the return-to-work equation better predict leave-of-absence durations and also will help them know where to focus return-to-work resources.

�This is a paradigm shift in the approach to absence management,� says Jon Seymour, MD, president, Guidelines for Reed Group. �It will allow everyone to do a better job of getting employees back to their healthy, productive endeavors, and it can help generate healthcare cost savings by giving physicians and case managers more useful, actionable information.�

Seymour says that the new tool will be valuable to healthcare practitioners of all kinds, especially occupational physicians, nurses and case managers. �By comparing a realistic assessment of actual outcomes with an idealized or �optimum� recovery, we provide caregivers with specific goals for returning the employee to work,� he says. �We also show all the participants how dramatic the cost savings can be if proper human intervention is maintained.�

Reed Group Chairman Dr. Presley Reed states: "Our predictive modeling statistical tool is powered by data from millions of cases. As with other Reed Group tools, this predictive model is only as good as its user. Calculated duration figures provided to users via this online calculator consider the normative data, together with the individual's medical condition (and a co-existing condition) plus patient age, and gender, but cannot take into account all the variables of every specific case. Application of these figures should not replace the treating physician's judgment regarding actual recovery periods for an individual case, nor interfere with the doctor/patient relationship. The values produced by this tool can provide valuable insight into reasonable recovery periods so that discussions among case professionals can be more constructive and targeted."

MDGuidelines, offering the sixth edition of Reed Group�s Medical Disability Advisor, is a must-have resource for physicians, employers, insurers, third-party administrators, attorneys and even patients themselves. It offers updated evidence-based disability durations, rehabilitation guidelines and frequency tables in an easy-to-search format.

MDGuidelines also is available to software providers and content aggregators in an easy-to-integrate, XML-based Web services format. With Web services, customers are able to seamlessly integrate disability durations, predictive recommendations, and referential content into the workflow of their end users, while ensuring that the data seen by those users is the most recently updated version.

MDGuidelines� Medical Disability Advisor is the industry�s universally-accepted tool for managing employee medical absence. It establishes common framework for non-adversarial communication among employees, employers, health professionals and insurers. Authored by Presley Reed, MD, in cooperation with leading epidemiologists and medical panels, it provides consistent and fair standards for medically appropriate leave of absence from work. MDGuidelines currently is used by more than 22,000 professionals in 38 countries.

To see a demonstration of the new Predictive Disability Durations tool, or to receive a free 30-day trial of MDGuidelines, please contact John Nelson, director of sales, Guidelines at 866.889.4449 or jnelson@reedgroup.com.

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About Reed Group

Reed Group is the world�s most trusted source of return-to-work information, helping companies improve employee absence outcomes. Reed Group�s data, tools, customized solutions, and case management services help reduce absence incidence and duration, and get employees back to normal, healthy lives and full productivity. Reed Group is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. More information at www.reedgroup.com and www.mdguidelines.com