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
Cognitive Functional Capacity Evaluation and Neurorehabilitation
Every year, 2 million North Americans experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Chronic TBI affects at least 6 million people of working age. Seven (7) million North Americans have a history of stroke, with half of these younger than 65. One-third of these people will never return to work, and 15% who return to work will leave employment within 6 months.
Occupational Therapists can evaluate clients using Cognitive Functional Capacity Evaluation (CFCE) and assist these persons to resume their careers with work-oriented neurorehabilitation (WON), the 21st century alternative to work hardening. We continue to develop resources and protocols to fill the ever growing need in this area of practice.
Protocol Sales
Functional capacity evaluation (FCE) protocols and packages can be purchased directly through our partner Matheson Development, including the following:
- Spinal Function Sort
(SFS background reading) - Hand Function Sort
(HFS background reading) - California Functional Capacity Protocol (Cal-FCP) (in Dr. Matheson’s ToolKit)
(Cal-FCP background reading) - Progressive Occupational Demand System–Doll Chair Assembly Task
- Structured Work Activity (SWAG) Upgrade Plus
- Cognitive Abilities Profiler (CAP)
- EPIC Lift Capacity (ELC) test
- Multidimensional Task Ability Profile (MTAP)
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:
- Matheson Development, of Prescott, Arizona, has been licensed to provide all of the EpicRehab protocols relating to work conditioning and work hardening, FCE, and CFCE.
- CBI (Canadian Back Institute) has been licensed as a partner with Epicrehab for 20 years. The institute has trained more therapists and clinicians in the standardized Epic Lift Capacity protocol than any other entity.
- BTE Technologies, of Baltimore, Maryland, has been licensed to provide the ELC test.
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 ELC test (certification includes an introduction to 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, MLS, 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.