Posted on October 21st, 2022 in Message from the President
Autumn Transitions

“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!”
               -A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

My kids have always loved the Fall. They are 18 and 17 now, but still nostalgic for the days of raking leaves into piles and diving in, bonfires and ‘Smores on crisp autumn nights, and hiking in Brown County on Fall Break. We still do all of these (except diving into leaves…they are too cool for that!). It is the signal cry of Autumn that gets our family into upbeat moods and excites us, even knowing the changes that lie ahead.

Autumn is also a time of transition for the IWCI. It is my sincere honor to be able to serve as President of the IWCI for the next two years. It will certainly be difficult to follow the footsteps of Dr. Bob Gregori. I can’t thank him enough for his guidance and leadership, especially taking on a third year as President while dealing with the immense challenges of COVID-19. Thanks so much, Bob, for all your dedication!

We have an excellent Board of Directors coming back to IWCI this year. I look forward to assisting the Board as we try to regain some semblance of normalcy. We are not all the way back to our pre-COVID days, but we are certainly planning on ramping up our events. Many companies are encouraging their employees to return to outside events, but we are not all the way back to pre-COVID attendance. Hopefully we all can encourage our employers to continue to allow more attendance with our educational and networking opportunities in the year ahead.

The IWCI has continued to provide quality events and hope to continue expanding our offerings. This past year, we staged an excellent Golf Outing in June and we were so happy to be able to see so many friendly faces. More impressively, after a two-year hiatus, we held a very successful Annual Conference in August. A new location and fresh energy really invigorated the Board and all our presenters, attendees and sponsors. Next year promises to build on all of this excitement and we cannot wait!

As we transition from the August Annual Conference, we are holding two more exciting events to close out 2022. Next Thursday, October 27, we are hosting our October luncheon the Marriott Indianapolis North, where we held our Annual Conference. Dr. Rose and Dr. Walker from Rayus will be speaking on Radiologic Considerations & Treatments for Compression Fractures and Knee/Shoulder Acute vs Chronic Findings respectively.

We are also very excited to announce a special combination speaker/cocktail party on December 1, also at the Marriott North. Dr. Meredith Langhorst of OrthoIndy will present a talk entitled “Paradigm Shift:  Restorative  Neurostimulation for Mechanical Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) and how it Relates to the Inured Worker.” Following that presentation, the IWCI will host a Cocktail Reception…kind of a mini-Holiday Party! We hope to return to a full-blown Holiday Party next year, but this is an excellent opportunity to meet old and new friends and exchange good cheer for the Holidays! Please be on the lookout for registration details or log on to www.iwci.org to register.

All of the members of the Board of IWCI are continually looking for new ideas and ways to expand the offerings that you, our members, need and want. Please feel free to reach out to me or any member of the Board with any ideas or thoughts as to how we may be of service. If you are interested in joining the Board and helping with our programming, I invite you to login into the Member section of www.iwci.org and submit a Board Application. We are always looking for ways to bring more creativity and options to our members. Let’s all embrace this opportunity to leap into the leaves together!

Steve Koers
IWCI President


Posted on March 2nd, 2021 in Message from the President

Like many, I ushered in 2021 by saying good riddance to 2020! It was an unmeasured year presenting many obstacles and a “new normal” that we all hope is temporary. I would like to thank our members and sponsors for supporting our abbreviated educational schedule last year. We are cancelling our educational luncheons through the Spring of 2021. We will finalize plans for activities in the second half of the year, when COVID abates.
IWCI is pleased to announce that we will host an educational webinar on March, 4 2021, COVID in the Workplace. The agenda will include 4 speakers; a physician, an attorney, the Indiana Work Comp Board and a Master Work Comp Advisor. We plan to discuss COVID exposure and risk, claim history (to date), legal aspects and clinically what is being noted to include a discussion regarding Long COVID and how to treat the associated myriad of symptoms. The webinar will conclude with a panel discussion designed to address attendee questions. Stay tuned – more details will be posted on our website soon!

As we welcome a fresh, new year – may we all look forward to once again gathering together. I’m hopeful that we are able to resume our August seminar, whether in-person, remote or a hybrid event. Please know that the IWCI Board will work diligently to renew our educational efforts in a safe and fun way!

My parting thought for you…
Two years after the end of World War I and the last Pandemic (Spanish Flu), America ushered in the ‘Roaring 20’s’. Culture, media and the role of women in society revolutionized during this decade . The economy was booming! Let us have faith that history does tend to repeat, and the remainder of this decade will rock and roll!

Dr. Robert Gregori
IWCI President


Posted on September 14th, 2020 in Message from the President

With Labor Day, comes the end of summer and recognition that this year, like all others, has been flying past us.  Even though we were locked down for months and emerged wearing masks and social distancing, time has not slowed down.  Many of us have endured hardships and some of us, illness or worse.  At IWCI this year, we too have been managing without.  We cancelled most of our luncheons, our annual seminar, and the holiday party.

As many of you know, we normally host our Annual Golf Outing in June.  We elected to postpone the event this year for obvious reasons.  Fortunately, the COVID State numbers are starting to fall, and Golf venues have successfully been open for months.  Therefore, we are excited to report that on October 2nd we will be hosting the IWCI annual golf event.  This year will feature the addition of the Coriden Cup, which will be presented to the winner of the golf outing.  The event honors a long time IWCI supporter and attorney, Terry Coriden.  The players will compete for the trophy, which the winner will hold until the following year.  The winner’s names will be permanently engraved on the trophy.

We recently opened registration and are happy to note many sponsorship spots have been taken.  However, we still need golfers!  So please support this years IWCI’s main event and sponsor a hole or register a foursome to golf for the honors of being the first winner of the Coriden Cup.  This year’s theme is “Legends in Sports”.  Participants are encouraged to dress as their favorite sports legend (please see our website for details).

Other events that are still on the schedule this year include a luncheon on October 15th at the Ritz Charles, featuring spine surgeon, David Schwartz, M.D. with Ortho Indy.  On November 5th, the Indiana Work Comp Board will be speaking on EDI update, claim filings/COVID, legislative updates and PPIs.  We hope to have many attend these luncheons live but the presentation will be available as a webinar for those not ready to venture out.  The North West Chapter also has a webinar on September 23rd featuring Dr. Khanna (Spine) and one on Ethics in October (see website for details).

We hope to see you at this year’s golf outing and have every intention of resuming a full schedule of pre-COVID IWCI events, conditions permitting, as we move into 2021.  I am also hopeful that next year will be less stressful and a bit more normal.  Please stay safe.  I look forward to seeing you all in the near future!


Posted on August 24th, 2020 in Message from the President

One year ago, a viral pandemic of COVID’s magnitude was predicted by only a few virologists.  Although I recognized this potential, it was only a fleeting occasional thought.  This time of year, typically brings IWCIs annual seminar where many of us gather to be educated or catch up with old friends.  We would have already had 2 to 3 educational luncheons and been chatting about who had the longest drive at the Golf Outing, months before.  Well, as we all know, this year has been much different.  Who would have thought we would be wearing face masks for much of our waking hours or having to social distance when partaking in social activities?  Many of us are now working from home and the only happy hours we get to enjoy are virtual.  My educational engagements this year have been conducted online and many others postponed or cancelled.

I am once again saddened to report that your IWCI Board recently elected to cancel this years Holiday Party.  There was unanimous agreement that we could not safely host an indoor event with hundreds of people.  However, we did feel that an outdoor event where people could social distance posed much less risk and as such, we are moving forward with plans to host the IWCI Golf Outing on October 2nd.  As this will likely be our only major event of the year, we are encouraging our sponsors to consider supporting this event.  As a business owner, I realize budgets are tight, but I also believe that the educational opportunities that are central to IWCI’s mission provide a vital resource for work comp community.  For those businesses that are weathering the storm, I would kindly ask that you continue your sponsorship of IWCI in order to help us be able to provide the same great opportunities to our members that they have enjoyed in the past.  I am hopeful that we will have plenty golfers out enforce to compete for the first Coriden Cup.  Stay tuned for the registration link that will soon be available on our website.

We are still scheduled for luncheons at the Ritz Charles October 15th and November 5th.  Dr. Schwartz will present on Spine Surgery in October and the WCB will be addressing questions raised in the recent survey to members at the November event.  We all miss the camaraderie of our group events but we are hopeful that next year we may return to some sense of normalcy.

Dr. Robert Gregori

IWCI President