Impairment Profiles

About Us > Profiles

Christopher R. Brigham, MD	Christopher R. Brigham, MD is the Founder and President of Brigham and Associates, Inc. He is the Senior Contributing Editor for the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Sixth Edition and was a contributor / author for several chapters, including Upper Extremities, Lower Extremities and Spine. With the Fifth Edition he served on the Advisory Committee and as a contributor. Dr. Brigham is Board-Certified in Occupational Medicine (ABPM), Founding Director of the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners (ABIME), a Certified Independent Medical Examiner (CIME), a Certified Impairment Rater (CIR), a Fellow of the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians (FAADEP) with Certification in Evaluation of Disability and Impairment Rating (CEDIR), and a Fellow of the American College of Occupational Environmental Medicine (FACOEM), and a graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine – St. Louis. He is the Editor of the AMA publications Guides Newsletter and the Guides Casebook. He is co-author of the text Understanding the AMA Guides in Workers Compensation, has written over one hundred published articles on impairment and disability evaluation and other texts, chaired the Medical Advisory Board for the Medical Disability Advisor, Fourth Edition, is featured in several video, audio and web-based productions in the medicolegal field, and has trained thousands of physicians, attorneys, claims professionals and fact-finders, throughout the US, Canada and internationally. He is an experienced professional speaker. As a clinician with over twenty five years experience, he has performed several thousand independent medical and impairment evaluations, providing him with excellent insight to the complexities of human potential, impairment and disability. As a result of this experience he has consulted for numerous organizations (including governmental jurisdictions). Curriculum Vitae ● Biographical Sketch

Cathy V. Brigham, RN, MS	Cathy V. Brigham, RN, MS, Vice President, is a highly skilled nurse and consultant with almost 20 years of experience in providing life care plans for individuals with catastrophic injuries and illness. She is a graduate of the University of Florida’s Intelicus Program in Life Care planning and has a Masters Degree in Health Outcomes Research and Public Health from Dartmouth Medical School. She is certified by the American Association of Nurse Life Care Planners (CNLCP) and the Commission on Health Care Certification (CLCP). Curriculum Vitae

Craig Uejo, MD, MPH	Craig Uejo, MD, MPH, QME, CIME, CIR, Medical Director, is a board-certified occupational medicine physician practicing in San Diego. He is also an Occupational and Disability Medicine Specialist with Sharp-Rees Stealy Medical Group, Associate Editor of the new edition of the Guides Casebook, reviewer of the AMA Guides Sixth Edition, an editorial board review member for the AMA Guides Newsletter, and a volunteer Clinical Faculty Member for the University of California at Irvine Occupational and Environmental Medicine Department. Dr. Uejo has more than 13 years experience in Occupational Medicine. He received his M.D. from the University of Southern California - Keck School of Medicine, did a residency in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California at Irvine, and received his Master’s Degree in Public Health from San Diego State University. He is a Qualified Medical Evaluator with the State of California, Certified Independent Medical Examiner by the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and is a Certified Impairment Rater. Dr. Uejo has extensive experience in the use of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, having performed and/or reviewed thousands of cases regarding impairment and causation/apportionment analyses. Curriculum Vitae

Ken Subin, MD, MPH	Kenneth P. Subin, MD, MPH, CIME, CIR, is board-certified in General Preventive Medicine and Occupational Medicine. Dr. Subin has more than 10 years of clinical experience in Occupational Medicine and currently practices in Elmira, New York where he serves as Clinical Medical Director for the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He received his M.D. from The George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed an internship in General Surgery at The George Washington University Medical Center, a residency in General Preventive Medicine at the University of California at San Diego, and received his Master’s Degree in Public Health from San Diego State University. He is a Certified Independent Medical Examiner by the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and is a Certified Impairment Rater. Dr. Subin has extensive experience in the use of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment and causation analysis. In addition, Dr. Subin has extensive training in the philosophy and methodology of Quality Improvement. Curriculum Vitae

Steve Demeter, MD, MPH	Stephen Demeter, MD, MPH, CIME, CIR is board-certified in three specialties: internal medicine, pulmonary medicine and occupational medicine. He is a distinguished consultant with a superb national reputation and a highly regarded author, having written approximately one hundred scientific publications, reviewer/associate editor for several medical specialty journals, and co-author of 3 medical textbooks (Environmental Respiratory Disease and 2 editions of the highly regarded AMA text Disability Evaluation). He is a graduate of Ohio State University College of Medicine, completed internship and residency at Mount Carmel Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, Fellowship in Pulmonary Disease at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Masters in Public Health from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has served as Professor and Head of Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (1983-2002 and Full Professor 1989-2002). Dr. Demeter is a Founding Fellow of the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians (1987) and President (2000-2001). He is a Certified Independent Medical Examiner by the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and is a Certified Impairment Rater. Curriculum Vitae

Dean Redington, DC	Dean Redington, DC, DABCO, CEDIR, CIR has 30 years of clinical experience, performed over 1100 impairment evaluations, 400 independent medical evaluations, and thousands of record reviews. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Chiropractic Orthopedics, Board Eligible by the American Board of Chiropractic Neurology, Certified in the Evaluation of Disability and Impairment rating by the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians (AADEP), and a Certified Impairment Rater (CIR) with Brigham and Associates. Dr. Redington has lectured on Claims Review for various insurance and regulatory agencies. He is licensed in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. He is the founder and President of Orthopedic Chiropractic Consultants.

Stanley Besser, MD	Stanley M. Besser, MD, QME, CIME, CIR is board-certified in Occupational Medicine (ABPM) and board-certified in Family Medicine (ABFM). He is in clinical practice with the Sharp Rees Stealy Medical Group where he is a Regional Medical Director and Associate Director of Occupational Health Services. He received his M.D. from the University Of Toronto, Canada and completed a residency in Family and Community Medicine at Toronto General Hospital. He completed postgraduate training in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. He is a Certified Independent Medical Examiner (CIME) by the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners (ABIME). He is a Qualified Medical Examiner (QME) in the State of California. He is certified by the Medical Review Officer Certification Council (MROCC). Dr. Besser has extensive experience in the use of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment and causation analysis.

Norma J. Leclair, Ph.D., RN	Norma J. Leclair, Ph.D., RN, LCPC is a principal and senior consultant with The Leclair Company with over 25 years of experience related to work ability and work restoration. Dr. Leclair has been a consultant to business and industry, health care systems, many of the leading long-term disability and workers’ compensation insurers and re-insurers, non-profit organizations and government agencies. She has engaged in defining and implementing the roles and responsibilities of the employer, the health care provider, the worker and the insurer in the prevention and management of work disability and supporting people to restore successful functioning. Dr. Leclair is a leading expert on the relationship between complex medical issues, psychiatric impairment, and work restoration for both occupational and non-occupational illness and injury. She has spoken and published on a variety of health care and disability topics, including psychiatric impairment and delayed recovery. She served as the consulting editor for psychiatric disorders for the 2001 edition of the Medical Disability Advisor. She has authored articles for the Guides Newsletter and co-authored “Impairment and Disability: Mental and Behavioral Disorders” in the Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Leclair is an expert on multi-axial assessment of psychiatric disorders, including the Global Assessment of Functioning. She received her Masters Degree in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Iowa and her doctoral degree in Counseling and School Psychology from The Ohio State University. Curriculum Vitae

Steven Leclair, Ph.D., CRC	Steven Leclair, Ph.D., CRC is a principal and senior consultant with The Leclair Company. He is a licensed psychologist and nationally certified rehabilitation counselor with more than 30 years of professional experience. Dr Leclair is an accomplished clinical and program evaluation specialist and an internationally recognized expert on disability, rehabilitation and work restoration. He has worked collaboratively with hundreds of business and industrial firms, hospitals, long term care facilities, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to assist them in developing pragmatic and cost effective disability prevention and work restoration programs. He has also designed or “fine-tuned” numerous industrial rehabilitation, occupational health and community-based support programs across the United States, Canada and The Netherlands. Dr. Leclair has provided consultation on complex claims, including those involving psychiatric disorders, for most of the major long-term disability, worker’s compensation and property and casualty insurers. He has authored more than 50 publications including books, book chapters, articles and monographs related to disability, rehabilitation, health care and work. He has presented numerous professional papers on various rehabilitation, leadership and health care topics at state, regional, national and international meetings. Dr. Leclair is an expert on multi-axial assessment of psychiatric disorders, including the Global Assessment of Functioning. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Iowa in Rehabilitation Psychology. Curriculum Vitae

Lorne Direnfeld, MD	Lorne Direnfeld, MD is a board-certified neurologist who has practiced in the State of Hawaii since 1983. For many years, Dr. Direnfeld's practice has emphasized the objective evaluation and analysis of complex, work-related injuries. Dr. Direnfeld is nationally recognized for his skills in independent medical examinations and permanent partial impairment ratings. He has been a faculty member for both the fundamentals and advanced impairment and disability evaluation courses, sponsored by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He is a frequent speaker within the State of Hawaii and nationally, on issues of workers' compensation and disability, particularly concerning conditions affecting the spine and the nervous system. Dr. Direnfeld is a member of the Standards Committee of the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and has been certified as an independent medical examiner by this board. He is on the editorial board of "The Guides Newsletter", published by the AMA, providing expert advice in the use of the "Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment", and has served as a consultant to the Practice Guidelines Committee of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and as a member of the medical advisory board and reviewer for "The Medical Disability Advisor." He is a Master Fellow of the Academy of Independent Medical Examiners of Hawaii (AIMEHI). Dr. Direnfeld is a Contributing Author to the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment – Sixth Edition, and holds an academic appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, at the University of Hawaii. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Medical Association, the Hawaii Medical Association, and the Massachusetts Medical Society. Curriculum Vitae

Bernard Blais, MD	Bernard Blais, MD, FAAO, FACOEM, FACS is a practicing ophthalmologist who is Board Certified in Ophthalmology, trained in Ophthalmic Pathology, a fellow in the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He was the Chair of two Ophthalmology Departments and had worked for eighteen years as a Corporate or Regional Occupational Medical Director. He has spoken and published and spoken extensively in the field of occupational ophthalmology. He was a contributor to the Guides Casebook: Learning Companion to the AMA 4th and 5th Edition Guides (AMA Press Publication). Dr. Blais has extensive experience in the use of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment in assessing visual impairment. Curriculum Vitae

Patrick Luers, MD	Patrick R. Luers, MD is a specialist in Spine Imaging and Interventional procedures who has authored 2 articles clarifying normal/abnormal spine motion in The Guides Newsletter, is a reviewer for the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Sixth Edition and contributor/author of the Spinal Alteration of Motion Segment Integrity (AOMSI) section of the Guides. The articles in The Guides Newsletter revised the abnormal spinal translation motion thresholds listed in previous (fourth and fifth) editions of The Guides. Dr. Luers has presented at National meetings on AOMSI and spinal imaging, reviewed dozens of AOMSI Impairment cases and is considered the national expert in AOMSI. Dr. Luers is a graduate of the University of Miami (Fla) School of Medicine (co-valedictorian), is Board certified in Radiology (ABR) and has performed a fellowship in Angiography & Interventional Radiology at Harvard University (Massachusetts General Hospital). He is currently the Chairman of the Department of Radiology of Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, a tertiary referral, trauma I hospital which is the largest in Utah. Dr. Luers has over 20 years experience in Spinal Imaging and Interventional procedures. Curriculum Vitae

August Colenbrander, MD	August Colenbrander, MD is an ophthalmologist with special expertise in the fields of ophthalmic classification and coding and in vision rehabilitation. He is based in San Francisco. Originally trained in the Netherlands, he has worked in the United States since 1969. He has worked with the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and served as a member and chair of its Committee on Vision Rehabilitation and its Committee on Terminology. In the United States he was involved with the development of the eye sections in ICD-9-CM and CPT; he consulted on the former California RVS and on SNOMED. He has worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO), for whom he coordinated the major revision of the eye chapter in ICD-9 and the eye codes in ICIDH. He represents the specialty of vision rehabilitation on the Advisory Committee of the ICO and is a member of the ICO/WHO Topic Advisory Group for the development of ICD-11. For 25 years he was the medical director of Low Vision Services at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco; he is an affiliate senior scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute. He was a founding board member of the International Society for Low Vision Research and Rehabilitation. Since previous visual disability ratings in the AMA Guides were still based on employment estimates from 1925, he was asked to revise the vision chapter for the 5th and 6th edition, bringing it up-to-date with current methods of vision assessment and with the functional approach to disability evaluation, advocated in the WHO’s International Classification of Functioning (ICF). Curriculum Vitae

Mindy Brigham	Mindy Brigham, Vice President of Operations, completed her Bachelors Degree in Education from Plymouth State College in Plymouth, NH. She taught elementary school for several years in Maine, Arizona and California before attending graduate school at San Diego State University, after which she was involved in management and marketing. She transitioned into the workers’ compensation field five years ago as a medical claims reviewer and abstractor. Mindy is responsible for the overall management of the west coast office, customer service, training coordination, and marketing for Brigham & Associates, Inc.

Leslie Dilbeck	Leslie Dilbeck, WCCP, CIR, Senior Consultant, is a Workers’ Compensation Claims Professional who has worked in the California Workers’ Compensation system since 1995. She received her Bachelors of Arts degree in Speech Communications from Point Loma Nazarene University where she had a successful career as a National Speech and Debate competitor. She began her career in workers’ compensation as a claims adjuster handling both State and Federal workers’ compensation claims. She has been awarded the State of California Self-Insurance Certificate. After a 5 year career in the claims industry Ms. Dilbeck went on to work for Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group in San Diego where she was responsible for training over 60 multi-specialty care physicians in report writing for workers' compensation and long-term disability. Ms. Dilbeck still acts as a consultant for physicians on the issue of impairment rating. She has extensive experience as a Certified Impairment Rater by providing training to physicians and claims professionals on the Guides. Additionally she has reviewed and rated several hundred cases utilizing the 5th Edition AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. Curriculum Vitae

Aimee McEntire	Aimee McEntire, WCCP, CIR, Senior Impairment Rater, is a Workers’ Compensation Claims Professional who has worked in the California Workers’ Compensation system since 1999. She began her career in workers’ compensation as a coverage specialist. She underwent a training program through Liberty Mutual and worked for a short while as a Property and Casualty adjuster. Having missed the thrill of the California Workers’ Compensation system she returned as an AOE/COE examiner investigating questionable claims. Soon after she was catapulted into an extensive training program and became a rating specialist under the AMA Guides and achieved Certified Impairment Rater® status in 2006.

Scott Schroeder	Scott Schroeder, WCCP, CIR, is a Workers’ Compensation Claims Professional who has worked in the California Workers’ Compensation system since 1988. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from the University of Northern Iowa. He began his career in workers’ compensation as a claims adjuster. He has been awarded the State of California Self-Insurance Certificate. Desirous of a career change, he joined Brigham & Associates in 2007 having achieved Certified Impairment Rater status that same year.

Jenny Walker	Jenny Walker, Business Administrator has over 20 years of business experience including a background in Human Resources. Hailing originally from England, Jenny oversees the Portland, Maine office and is involved in the many different aspects of the day to day business nationwide. Responsible for the Human Resource and Payroll functions, she is also Dr. Brigham’s personal assistant, together with ensuring the smooth operation of our accounting department, our affiliate programs and the company websites.

Nicole LeDuc	Nicole LeDuc, Client Services Representative, has years of experience providing exceptional customer service. Nicole works closely with our clients to consistently exceed expectations. Located in our Portland, Maine office, she is the first point of contact for many of our clients, except for those based in California and Hawaii. One of her top priorities is to always ensure that quality reports are provided in a timely manner.

Kerry Tockarshewsky	Kerry Tockarshewsky, Client Services Representative, has several years of experience in the workers’ compensation field as well as in customer service. She began in the workers' compensation field at Sharp Rees-Stealy as a Case Coordinator, where she worked as a liaison between doctors and the insurance carrier, seeking authorizations for treatment. While working at Brigham and Associates, Kerry has completed courses for training on the AMA Guides, Fifth Edition. Kerry works in our San Diego, California office where she handles all of our California and Hawaii clients, assuring that quality reports are provided in a timely manner.

Heidi Getchell	Heidi Getchell, Accounts Manager was one of our first employees. Located in our corporate office in Portland, Maine, she handles the daily finances for our company. Heidi has over 20 years of experience in the bookkeeping field including several years when she ran her own business creating wedding dresses.

Mary Lou LeMoult	Mary Lou LeMoult, Accounts Assistant / Marketing Assistant completed her Bachelors Degree in Finance from the University of Connecticut. Having worked in the financial industry for several years, she started working for Dr. Brigham in 1995 as his first employee. Located at the corporate office in Maine, Mary Lou works in the Accounting Department and is also involved in marketing our products and services under the guidance of Mindy Brigham.

Krystle Llanto	Krystle Llanto, Marketing & Graphic Design Specialist, originally from Alaska, completed her Bachelors Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from San Diego State University. Shortly after graduation, she spent two years studying Graphic Design at San Diego City College. Although she recently transitioned into working in the workers’ compensation field, she has extensive administrative and client service experience. Krystle acts as a liaison between the clients and our products and services. She is responsible for designing the marketing collateral for Brigham & Associates and works closely alongside Mindy to run the marketing department in the San Diego office.

Rachel Thurber	Rachel Thurber, Administrative Support, is the first point of contact in our San Diego, California office. She has years of experience as a customer service representative, providing guaranteed client satisfaction. Assistant to Marketing & Graphic Design Specialist, Krystle Llanto, and Vice President of Operations, Mindy Brigham, Rachel administers all product, sales and training inquiries, client interactions / event operations and planning, and assists in the scheduling and execution of quality Impairment Reviews and reports.

In addition, we work with other highly skilled associates, based on the specifics of each case.