From Science Fair to Medical Software
In 1981, while most high school seniors were focused on graduation, our founder Gerry Kaplan was busy working on his science fair project, crafting software to automate the process of generating impairment ratings. You might be wondering how an 18-year-old would know anything about impairment ratings, a procedure understood primarily by those in the medical community.
To make extra money, Gerry would transcribe and type his chiropractic father’s narrative reports. These reports usually included an impairment rating. The tabular nature and mathematical expressions of the impairment rating made it tedious to type and error-prone. Faced with a school assignment to come up with a science project, Gerry wondered if he could write a computer program to automate impairment ratings. Little did he know his science project would continue for more than 45 years.
This was not Gerry’s first science fair rodeo. His first science project studied the effects of how spinal subluxation could affect the urinary tract. This was followed by a project to use a computer to calculate the settings for an x-ray machine to assure safe roentgen dosage. Consequently, that project gained support from IBM and went on to win 2nd place at the International Science and Engineering Fair in San Antonio Texas. A storybook ending to the science fair was a personal congratulations from IBM’s president, John Opel, and landing an internship with IBM at NASA on the first space shuttle project.
More Than Software Expertise: a Doctor Dad
Although Gerry was a computer geek, writing software requires deep domain knowledge of the subject to be automated. Gerry would need to fully understand not only the mechanics of how to calculate permanent impairment, but also the underlying medical concepts that form the foundation of impairment ratings. Without Google and YouTube, how was a teenager to learn these topics?
Fortunately for Gerry, his father, Dr. Stanley Kaplan, knew a few things about impairment ratings. A graduate of the Chiropractic Institute of New York in 1957, he went on to become certified in orthopedics and eventually taught chiropractic orthopedics at a post-graduate level for numerous accredited chiropractic colleges. Having taught impairment rating for disability evaluation since 1973, he was intimately familiar with AMA’s Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment and went on to participate in the development of subsequent editions of the Guides. What better resource could a kid ask for?
Past, Present, Future
The impairment rating program that started as an award-winning science fair project continued to evolve. Gerry saw each new edition of the AMA’s Guides as an opportunity to reimagine the software using the latest bleeding-edge technologies. Originally designed as a standalone desktop application running in DOS and Windows, ImpairMaster transitioned to the Internet in 2005 where it continues to thrive today. Over the years, thousands of physicians relied on ImpairMaster as an essential, time-saving strategic tool in optimizing their report writing workflow.
Once again, with the most recent release of the 2024 revision of the AMA Guides 6th edition, the ImpairMaster team will be leaping forward and applying innovative ideas and technologies to the impairment rating process. ImpairMaster AI Labs is investigating how artificial intelligence can enhance, rather than replace, physician expertise in impairment evaluations. We’re building connectors that help AI talk to ImpairMaster, enabling AI to produce validated impairment ratings. Contact us if you’d like to be in the beta program.
More than four decades since its appearance at the Brevard County (Florida) Science Fair, ImpairMaster continues the spirit of kind assistance and a legacy of knowledgeable care imbued into a young Gerry by his father Dr. Kaplan. ImpairMaster to this day helps physicians streamline their evaluation workflow, improve efficiency, and produce accurate impairment rating reports.
(thanks to Gerry for significant edits and storytelling; to Ana for proofreading)
