About us

About us

A Canadian civil forensic practice built on experience.

Els and Gelinas – collectively have almost 50 years of experience in conducting independent medical examinations (IMEs) and regularly conduct training in this field, including in collaboration with the International Academy of Independent Medical Evaluators (IAIME) (add link).
Els – is an occupational psychiatrist and addiction physician (link to bio; uploaded to Google Drive) and conducts mental and behavioural disorder-related (M&BD) IMEs and other civil forensic assessments, and is regulated by CPSA (hyperlink please) under the HPA.
Gelinas – conducts musculoskeletal (MSK) IMEs and impairment rating evaluations and holds a DC (Doctor of Chiropractic) and an MD (Doctor of Medicine) and is regulated by CCOA (College of Chiropractors of AB) under the HPA (link to bio).He also holds an MD degree.

10 Years of Experience

Over the course – of time, and after having completed numerous (IMEs), they asynchronously recognized the need to reduce IME protocol variability, to improve impact, quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the IME work product.
Els & Gelinas – also recognized that, unlike is the case for MSK IMEs, there existed no comparable guidelines for Mental and Behavioural Disorder (M&BD) IMEs. In the latter, it is common to encounter limitations like (1) “the failure to adhere to using standard nomenclature and evidence-based impairment ratings, (2) neglect to introduce sufficient objectivity and screening for malingering, and (3) lack of appreciation of the IME as a forensic psychiatric assessment, accompanied by a lack of observation of principles of ethical practice in this arena”.
Both – also recognized the occurrence of unnecessary and prolonged disability resulting from sub-optimal IME work products, the occurrence of so-called hired guns in the civil forensic field, as well as the disproportionate cost associated with adjudicating files.
Their main – focus has been to improve quality and to establish best practice guidelines.
Most recently – they established a community of practice to scale promote accountability and adherence to ‘gold standards’ to a national level.
In their – offerings to a range of employers, unions, regulators, legal professionals, and others, Els & Gelinas invite referring parties in their selection of an IME provider, to consider cost, quality, validity, and defensibility of the work product.
Els & Gelinas – place a strong emphasis on alignment with the most current Best Practice Guidelines as well as the most current AMA Guides® Impairment Rating methodology. It is critical for IME examiners to not rely solely on subjective (claimant / examinee) self-report, recognized as the Achilles heel of psychiatric IMEs.
The Civil Forensic – Group aims to ensure the consequential decisions about impairment, disability, causation, and other matters must be based on solid quantifiable evidence.
Els’ and Gelinas’ work – has been published in numerous high-impact peer-reviewed journals, in collaboration with several global leaders in the field, collectively cited more than 1,500 times in other peer-reviewed publications.
Background

The benefits of belonging to this civil forensic community of practice: (CF-COP)

Access professional support and belonging: Reduce isolation (siloed working), validate experiences, and foster trust-based relationships and connections within the field.
Enhancing defensibility of work products.
Mitigating medico-legal risk.
Bidirectional mentoring; access to experts and global opinion leaders.
Knowledge sharing: Exchange experiences, insights, tools, and examples of what works (and what doesn’t), guided by published best practices.
Learning & Skill Development: Mutual learning from other CF-COP members through review of challenging case scenarios together
Building a Shared Identity & Standards: Develop common language, norms, and approaches that define what works and what does not. Also, creation of, and endorsement of agreed-upon standards.
Innovation & Improvement: Generate new ideas, improve methods, and co-create solutions to shared challenges.
Knowledge Retention Capture and preserve institutional or professional knowledge over time; senior experts mentor newer professionals to retain expertise within the field.
Networking.
Research and publication opportunities.
Improve professional credibility.
Why choose us

Excellence in civil forensic practice.

We provide objective, evidence-based civil forensic assessments and consultations with a strong focus on quality, consistency, and defensibility in every medico-legal opinion.

Our Vision

To lead civil forensic consultations, education, training, and IME services across Canada.

Our Mission

  1. Delivery of high-quality defensible IMEs and medico-legal consultations to meet the needs in the community.
  2. Train and educate a range of service providers (scribes, IME providers, stakeholders).
  3. Ongoing QI initiatives and research
  4. Disseminate best practices.

Our Criteria

Criteria for entry into CF-COP

Tier

Tier Title

Function

1

Learners

Optimize additional training; gain experience and expertise.

2

Practitioners FFS Delivery

Service Delivery

3

Primary focus practitioners

COP functions

4

Consultants

Consultants High-level consultancy

5

Equity partners

Equity partners Promote CF-COP objectives

Video

See how we work with touch of experience

Founding Principles

Our Guiding Principles and Core Values

Integrity and neutrality.
Highest attainable quality and defensibility of work product.
Innovative (AI).
Collaboration.
Education (vs service delivery only) focus.
Sustainability.

Archives

Categories

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Melbourne, Australia
(Sat - Thursday)
(10am - 05 pm)
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