The West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of a worker’s application for permanent total disability. Case: Murray American Energy Inc. v. Harshey, No. 24-ICA-73, 07/30/2024, unpublished. Facts: Dustin Harshey…

The West Virginia Supreme Court overturned an award of permanent partial disability benefits to an injured worker, finding that it was improperly based on the opinion of a doctor who failed…

A federal appellate court upheld an award of black lung benefits for a longtime coal miner. Case: Consol PA Coal Co. v. OWCP, No. 23-1892, 09/17/2024, unpublished. Facts: Stephen Hela worked as an…

West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld the denial of a school worker’s claim of injury from a child tapping her on the head. Case: Hill v. Wyoming County Board of…

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis enacted a bill that will increase the cap on combined temporary disability and permanent partial disability benefits by 100% or more. Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, D-Arvada Polis on…

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a bill increasing the cap on payments for reemployment plans by 66.5%. Alaska law allows injured workers who are not able to return to employment after…

The Washington Court of Appeals upheld the denial of an injured worker’s request to reopen her claim due to her failure to timely perfect her appeal of the decision of…

A trial court erred when it granted a motion in limine to preclude an injured worker from presenting to a jury the question of eligibility for a permanent partial disability…

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This six hour course will cover the Burden of Proof on Causation of Disability and includes the ultimate checklist for handling a Guzman rebuttal case.

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This program presents a panel of legal and medical experts discussing required protocols for writing the Causation and Apportionment sections of Medical Legal Reports. Instructors will enable students to clearly…

"Work Comp Matters" - the central location for all your workers' compensation, employment and labor law matters. Steve Appell hosts this weekly podcast from sunny southern California - presenting some…

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Whether you are an employer, claims examiner, medical provider or attorney, this program will provide you with a clear understanding and practical approach of how the MTUS and Formulary to…

The New Jersey Commissioner of Banking and Insurance approved a 6.9% decrease in rates for workers' compensation policies incepting on or after Jan. 1. Average rate changes will vary by industry…

The Colorado Division of Insurance announced a 4.3% average loss cost decrease for workers' compensation policies incepting in 2025. Loss costs are the average cost of lost wages and medical payments…

The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Workers’ Compensation Commission denying an employer’s successive application for a hearing as being unsupported by probable cause. In December 2022, Jessica…

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The New Mexico Workers’ Compensation Administration is seeking public comment regarding the reappointment of Judge Ned Fuller to a five-year term. Ned S. Fuller Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Fuller, the…

A New York appellate court ruled that the Workers’ Compensation Board applied the wrong standard of proof to a social worker seeking benefits for physical and psychological injuries from being…

A Texas appellate court upheld the denial of a self-represented worker’s claim due to his failure to ensure there was a record of the administrative proceedings that resulted in the…

Hon. Clint Feddersen designed this course to prepare experienced workers' compensation attorneys to become California Certified Legal Specialists in Workers' Compensation Law.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals said a series of post-order motions filed by a self-represented injured worker didn’t extend the statute of limitations, so the appeal of the order dismissing…

The North Carolina Senate unanimously confirmed the reappointment of James C. Gillen to the state Industrial Commission. James C. Gillen The Carolina Journal reports that the Senate on Thursday voted 45-0…

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that an administrative law judge’s order awarding temporary total disability benefits to an injured worker was interlocutory and not appealable. Case: Spencer County Fiscal Court v.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear reappointed two members to the committee that nominates candidates for vacant workers’ compensation administrative law judge positions. Beshear reappointed Grover Arnett and Kenneth Dietz to the Workers’…

The Montana Workers’ Compensation Court ruled that the Department of Labor & Industry needed to make a finding as to the reasonableness of a worker’s refusal to attend a therapy…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill allowing police and firefighters with injuries that are presumed to be compensable to select a doctor and increasing the provider’s reimbursement to twice…

A Louisiana appellate court overturned a judge’s decision approving a worker’s change of physician but upheld the denial of the employer’s request for a forfeiture of benefits. Case: Southern v. Servpro…

A Louisiana appellate court overturned a finding that a worker’s stiff person syndrome was not related to her work accident, and a finding that she was capable of engaging in gainful employment…

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and the Office of the Insurance Commissioner said businesses will pay an average of 10.5% less for workers’ compensation coverage, starting Oct. 1. The state’s…

Research Highlights: People who are satisfied with their lives or feel contentment or well-being may be less likely to develop heart disease and stroke than their unsatisfied counterparts. The analysis of health records for more than 120,000 adults...

Research Highlights: An analysis of UK Biobank health data that included adults who had mild to severe COVID-19 before vaccines were available found an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and death among those adults during the nearly three-year...

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20, 2024 — The U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee today is considering the Cardiomyopathy Health Education, Awareness, Research and Training in Schools (HEARTS) Act, which would help ensure students ...

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DALLAS, September 9, 2022 — Following is a statement from the American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health: “One year after a court-ordered deadline to determine whether flavored e-cigarette ...

Did Apple just disrupt Healthcare?  More specifically, Health Tech? I would say Healthcare is one of those industries ripe for innovation disruption.  It is a mature industry lead by large slow-moving organisations, that have been around forever.  They have built their equivalent of the Great...

The post Designing Clarity 03 – Did Apple just Disrupt Healthcare? appeared first on Design Sojourn. Please click above if you cannot see this post.

Orientation and navigation in a unknown city can be hard, can these wayfinding apps help you along?

Exploring unknown cities for business or pleasure, for me, is always a joyful experience, walking around and getting into the city will enlighten your vision and makes you connect to the culture. Visiting the beautiful and exciting elements a city has to offer makes your trip an unforgettable visit. Getting information on how to get around in a city is essential for easy orientation and navigation.

Actually one of the most important factors that you will remember after visiting a city is how did you get around.

What items did you use to navigate through a city? How did public transport interacts with the navigation possibilities that you have? What was your feeling and with the items you used to navigate and did you find your way? Where did you get your information from and was it sufficient enough?

All of these questions make or break a your vision on city exploration.

Exploring a unknown city

When visiting a city there are different ways you can get there and after arriving you need to know where you are in the spatial environment in order to locate yourself and make decisions on where to go next. The provided information at that point of entry is critical for easy city exploration, if the provided information is insufficient, you might turn the wrong way and not finding the locations you want or need to visit. Going the wrong way increases feelings of disorientation, distraction and anxiety. The feeling that you are loosing time on exploring a city trip is one of the worst psychological emotions you experience.

City information

When visiting a new city is can be useful to check the cities website and obtain information about:

• Public transport and available connections between the various transportation services
• Getting a map of the city and locate your hotel, maybe even plan a trip from your city point to entry to the hotel
• Maybe plan your trip via google maps and mark all the points your want to visit
• Opening hours of the facilities you want to visit
• I’m that kind of guy that doesn’t do any of the suggested items as described above… I just try to explore the city using my senses and trying to find where I need to go next. Sometimes this is a great and joyful experience, sometimes it causes disorientation and arguments with the people I travel with at that time.

Orientation and navigation in an unknown city

When using your senses to guide yourself in a unknown environment you need eye-level directional information and possibly a map to locate and navigate through the city. City often uses directional signs on streets to point you in the right direction and sometimes information panels are providing you with an orientation overview. In future posts I will go deeper into pedestrian navigation and city wayfinding. Other forms of navigation is through a mobile phone powered with for instance Google Maps or specific applications enhanced to bring you information about the city you want to visit.

City marketing and visitors information

As city marketing is the nr. 1 way of promoting your city, providing information to the visitors is also part of the branding strategy. Currently many cities worldwide are producing mobile applications to improve the visitors experience and this will make it easier to navigate through a city. I have compiled a list of iPhone applications which will let you navigation through a city using your own personal map.

iPhone apps are a huge extension to the workflow of every professional designer. This list is a large collection of work apps for your iPhone to manage your online files, create a mindmap, record messages, send business cards, pick a color and convert it into another, make calculations and much more. This list provides over 20+ iPhone applications, some are paid, some are free, let me know what iPhone App you use.

What is wayfinding?

Wayfinding is a design profession that requires multidisciplinary skills ranging from psychology, the study of human behavior, research in the built environment to strategy and design.

To develop a wayfinding scheme we start by looking at the end-user needs and requirements at each stage of the user-journey. The goal of a wayfinding scheme is to create a network of information, by showing the right information at the right time focused around the end-user.

How to map the user needs and requirements?

In order to understand the user in relation to the built environment, path and surroundings. We need to gather information from the user. What needs and requirements does the user have and how does the journey path look like.

In order to map the user-journey we look at the following steps to gather information:

• Define the end-user groups, e.g. visitor, student, tourist, patient, commuter, supplier, guest, etc.
• Field research, study the behaviour of the user(s) and map out their movements and modes of transportation
• Identify issues in wayfinding and define potential opportunities for improving the user-experience
• Look for accessibility issues and survey users to get a full understanding of their needs and requirements

Wayfinding strategy

The next step in the wayfinding approach is to define a information hierarchy. Show only what is needed and remove excessive information. Provide consistent information across all media and reveal options along the user-journey stages.

In this step the needs and requirements are put into the information hierarchy. To create a unique and seamless user journey experience by showing sorting the information in a logical order. This results in a comprehensive and bespoke wayfinding system where visitors can orientate, navigate and discover its surroundings.

Design for All concept

Accessibility is an important factor to consider this includes the following items to consider:

• Respectful, the wayfinding should respect the diversity of users
• Safe, it should be free of risks to all users
• Functional, wayfinding should be able to orientate, navigate, identify and discover
• Comprehensible, a integrated approach to wayfinding design
• Appealing, emotional and socially acceptable
• Sustainable, misuse of natural resources should be avoided

Key takeaways

By following these guidelines you will be able to map out the user needs and requirements. Focus the information at the end-user to create a unique and seamless experience.

• Map the user journey and seek for issues and opportunities at every stage of the journey
• Develop a wayfinding strategy focused at the end-user
• Make use of the Design for All concept

The importance of mobile design really cannot be exaggerated these days. In 2014, 60 percent of web traffic came from a mobile device. That’s well over half, and more than enough reason to convince any sane person of the importance of mobile first design.But building a top smartphone app is tough. Contrary to what most […]

The post 6 main elements of beautifully designed smartphone apps first appeared on TECH Intelligence and is written by Drew Hendricks.

Apps can really help your business grow, or they can be your entire business.  Flappy Bird anyone?  But no matter which route you go, it’s worth an audit to be sure you are making as much money as you possibly can from your company’s apps.  Otherwise, you are just leaving money on the table, and […]

The post Are you making enough money from your apps? first appeared on TECH Intelligence and is written by Brian Wallace.

Online retail sales have been growing steadily in recent years, reaching record highs in 2015.  Shoppers spent a combined $4.33 billion on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday alone.  Customers are purchasing things like clothing and accessories more than anything else, despite the fact they can’t try it on before buying.  This is great for retailers […]

The post Why are your customers unhappy? first appeared on TECH Intelligence and is written by Brian Wallace.

The Internet of Things (IoT) transforms industries, businesses, and daily life by connecting physical devices to the Internet, enabling real-time data exchange and automated operations. From smart homes to industrial automation, the applications of Internet of Things are vast, providing numerous advantages in terms of efficiency, convenience, and cost savings. This article explores the top...

The post Top 9 Applications of Internet of Things and Its Examples appeared first on noupe.

Thomas Bohm rethinks technical illustrations and data visualizations, sharing interesting and uncommon examples of how to present data and information. Bar graphs and pie charts are great, but there’s so much more to explore!

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