About EpicRehab

At EpicRehab we conduct research and development and provide professional education on tests and procedures for the occupational rehabilitation of persons with disability.

We provide face-to-face and distance learning opportunities for occupational therapists, physical therapists, physicians, psychologists, vocational evaluators, rehabilitation counselors, and case managers. These learning opportunities focus on work rehabilitation of persons with disability, addressed through peer-reviewed and invited publications and our website with numerous free educational resources and free procedures and forms.

Current Focus

Functional Capacity Evaluation Protocol Development and Licensing

EpicRehab continues to develop new functional capacity evaluation protocols. It also licenses reputable manufacturers to implement its functional capacity evaluation protocols on their equipment:

  • BTE Technologies, of Baltimore, Maryland, has been licensed to provide the EPIC Lift Capacity test as well as the Spinal Function Sort and the Hand Function Sort. BTE Technologies has developed the only computerized versions of each functional capacity evaluation protocol.
  • Roy Matheson Associates (RMA), of Keene, New Hampshire, has been licensed to provide the EPIC Lift Capacity test as well as the Spinal Function Sort and the Hand Function Sort as part of the Matheson System, the longest-standing integrated functional capacity evaluation and work capacity evaluation test batteries. To support the proper use of these test batteries, RMA has provided highly regarded professional training for more than 25 years.
  • MindTrust, LLC, of San Diego, California, has been licensed to implement the EpicRehab functional capacity evaluation protocols and a new omnibus Sort on equipment designed for the offices of orthopedic surgeons and rehabilitation specialists.

Protocol Sales

We sell some of our functional capacity evaluation protocols directly, including the following:

Occupational Rehabilitation Training

EpicRehab develops and provides both face-to-face and independent distance learning opportunities for rehabilitation professionals on methods to evaluate and treat persons with work disability. Free training sessions and other resources are found on this web site, as well as commercially available training opportunities.

Certification

We provide in-service certification to health care professionals who wish to use the EPIC Lift Capacity test or the Cal-FCP.

The People at EpicRehab

Mary Matheson, MS, President
L. N. Matheson, PhD, Research Scientist, Founding Director
Karen Markley, Associate Director, Training and Certification
Sherry McCowan, MA, Web Developer

Beginnings

EpicRehab’s roots are deep. Based on the work during the 1970s of Leonard Matheson and his colleagues at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center, the company was originally founded as ERIC, the Employment and Rehabilitation Institute of California in 1979.

ERIC provided consultation to insurance carriers and functional capacity evaluation services to disabled clients in four locations in Southern California. In 1981, it began providing professional training seminars in occupational rehabilitation and by 1985 was offering three courses:

  • Work Capacity Evaluation
  • Work Tolerance Screening
  • Work Hardening

In Anaheim, California, ERIC established what was at that time the largest free-standing occupational rehabilitation clinic in the United States, the ERIC Rehabilitation Center. The Rehabilitation Center housed the ERIC Professional Residency Program that began in 1986.

Transition to Research and Training

ERIC continued until 1990, when the clinic’s focus turned to research and, under the direction of Leonard Matheson, became the ERIC Human Performance Laboratory. (At that time, the training division was taken over by Roy Matheson, who founded Roy Matheson and Associates, a professional training development and resource center.)

EPIC, the Employment Potential Improvement Corporation, was founded in 1990 at ERIC to make available applications of the knowledge that was being developed in the Human Performance Laboratory.

In 1992 Dr. Matheson accepted a part-time position on the faculty of the Program in Occupational Therapy at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and began commuting monthly. EPIC closed in California in 1996 when Dr. Matheson accepted a full-time faculty position at Washington University and moved to St. Louis. EPIC was reorganized as a Missouri corporation in 1996 and became EpicRehab in 2007 when he retired from the University and entered private practice as a clinician and consultant.