February 11, 2002—The Work Loss Data Institute has released the 7th annual edition of Official Disability Guidelines 2002, its evidence-based disability duration manual. For every reportable condition, including occupational and non-occupational illnesses and injuries, ODG provides return-to-work duration guidelines and benchmarking elements based on over 3 million cases from the CDC & OSHA within the ODG database. Three new features have also been added: average medical costs, integrated ICD-10 codes, and chiropractic guidelines. The ODG “Best Practice” Guidelines appropriately use factors like type of treatment, type of job, and severity of case to assign disability durations within each condition. ODG 2002 data is described as “the most direct form of evidence that can be offered in court” under the newly revised Federal Rules of Evidence.
