Jennifer Christian MD receives 2008 Frances Perkins Award from IAIABC
Jennifer Christian, MD MPH, founder and Chair of the 60 Summits Project, was one of six to receive President's Awards at the recent 94th Annual IAIABC Convention in Vancouver, BC. The 2008 Frances Perkins Award was given to Dr. Christian "for following in the footsteps of Frances Perkins, US Secretary of Labor and IAIABC President, who was a role model for innovation and progressive leadership in workers' compensation." Further details are at www.iaiabc.org.
(Awards presented October 30, 2008)
Jennifer Christian MD receives Risk & Insurance Innovator Award
Jennifer Christian, MD MPH, founder and Chair of the 60 Summits Project, was named as one of Risk & Insurance magazine's "2008 Risk Innovators" and was further named as one of seven "Responsibility Leaders", an award sponsored by Liberty Mutual.
(Awards announced September 15, 2008)
What is The 60 Summits Project?
The 60 Summits Project brings people together to build a team approach to the stay-at-work and return-to-work (SAW/RTW) process. At our Summits, relationships begin forming across traditional boundaries as stakeholders agree on specific new ways to collaborate – because they now see that the goal is to minimize the disruptive impact of illness and injury on life and work for employed people as well as their employers. Read more
Mission and Goal: We are introducing a new paradigm to all 50 US states and 10 Canadian provinces for preventing needless work disability by helping people stay employed. The adoption of this new paradigm will increase the well-being, diversity, availability, and productivity of North America's workforce by reducing avoidable lost workdays, presenteeism, benefit costs, job loss, and withdrawal from the workforce. Read More
The New Paradigm: In the traditional benefits processing model, the focus is on processing and adjudicating a person’s claim for disability benefits or workers’ compensation accurately and then paying the benefits promptly. In contrast, the point of the new work disability prevention model is to anticipate and assess the impact of illness or injury on the whole situation (person + work), and to actively drive the real-world situation towards the best achievable overall outcome. Read More
Framework: Our Summits focus on a clear blueprint for improving the SAW / RTW process laid out in a brief whitepaper by the American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. ACOEM's new model calls for those who play central roles – workers, healthcare providers and employers – to collaborate in making sure the right things happen. Read More
The Summits: These events are planned by local groups and include many parties – stakeholders – who are called on when a worker develops a potentially-disabling illness or injury. But Summits are only the beginning. Read More

