Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Biomechanical Issues for Motor Vehicle Collisions



Biomechanical Issues for Motor Vehicle Collisions

It is important for the doctor to recognize that if a particular case goes into litigation, the insurance carrier will often hire a defense biomechanics expert, or medical expert that uses the conclusions of the biomechanists, to challenge the patient’s injuries and symptom logy, as well as the doctor’s diagnosis and treatment. The biomechanist can be an effective ally for the defense if he/she can attack the injury mechanisms and G forces (acceleration) generated during the collision, and influence a jury to believe the patient was not injured or simply had a trivial injury that would have resolved within a brief period of time with or without any treatment. These opinions are then typically reiterated by the defense medical expert, who is in agreement with the biomechanist, with the clear objective of downplaying the extent of the plaintiff’s injuries (bias) and attacking the treating doctors. In most cases the defense biomechanics expert will focus on the following issues:
               -Insufficient force to cause injury
               -Downplay the severity of injury, this giving the defense doctor basis to state that the treatment was excessive and unnecessary
               -Forces of collision are similar to those experienced in activities of daily living and therefore not responsible for post crash symptoms or injuries
               -Will often rely on limited living human volunteer testing (no subjects taken from general population) and extrapolate data to the specific patient
               -No injury mechanism
               -All post-traumatic symptoms were due to prior degenerative conditions or injuries and would have occurred at the same time frame absent the MVC

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