Research Summary
Dr. McKenzie's research focuses on OEM outcomes and work as a social determinant of health with the goal to improve worker and community health, safety, and well-being and to prevent disability. Main areas are occupational and environmental illness and exposures; the cost and management of work disability; undergraduate and graduate medical education; employee wellness, burnout and resiliency, and prevention; and mitigation of OEM hazards such as hazardous drugs, infectious diseases like SARS-CoV-2, toxins like lead, and environmental hazards like heat-related illness consequent to Climate Change. Much of her scholarly work has influenced policy, impacting thousands of workers.
Her successful intervention to reduce heat-related illness (HRI) in outdoor workers in Texas [JOEM 61(9)2019] led to testimony in Congress regarding the utility and importance of an OSHA Heat Standard toward prevention of HRI and informed the CDC informational pamphlet on employee HRI prevention. She co-authored the premier national OEM society (ACOEM) Position Statement on Prevention of Heat-Related Illness [JOEM 63(10) 2021]. As Editor of the JOEM Forum section she featured in a series on Climate Change [JOEM 2019)]. In another environmental effort, when residents of the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale region reported health effects they attributed to environmental exposures because of fracking activities in their community, her team investigatedusing pilot funding from the UPenn Center of Excellence for Environmental Toxicology. Their research, one of the first to highlight community health complaints, resulted in development of a registry of such complaints. [IJERPH 11(6)2014]. Her work on opioids and workplace safety informed CDC guidance [JOEM 11(59)2017].
Dr. McKenzie's intervention study on the effectiveness of safe needle devices provided evidence for The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (NSPA), mandating the use of safe needle devices. [ICHE 28(2)2007]. Another key insight of her research that long working hours were associated with increased needlestick and splash injuries to housestaff, supported The American Council on Graduate Education Duty Hour Rule, which reduced the number of hours residents can work [ICHE 28(1)2007]. These findings supported national data and were instrumental in driving strategic interventions that optimize the use of safe needle devices locally at UPenn.
Poorly controlled and escalating workers compensation costs are a major current concern for many states. Dr. McKenzie developed a national reputation for work on worker's compensation (WC) outcomes, showing the value of case management on improving WC cost outcomes [JOEM 40(6)1998; JOEM 44(12)2002]. She edited and made numerous contributions to a major volume, Managing Workers Compensation Costs [Elsevier Saunders, 4(2)2004]. This text became widely used by insurance and workers’ compensation authorities, and by practitioners in Occupational Medicine, Nursing and Safety. Her work on the ACOEM OEM Core Competencies Taskforce has guided national ACGME and local Program Directors OEM curricula [JOEM 63(7)2021; JOEM 56(5)2014].
She continues to investigate root causes for the shortage of OEM specialists, documented by the NAM since 1988. Her research, presented nationally, shows that the ongoing shortage of OEM specialists is partially due to limited exposure in medical school, in addition to lack of funding and training accessibility limitations [JPHMP Suppl 3:(6) 2021; JGME 9(5)2017]. She chaired the 2021 Future of OEM Presidential Task Force charged with further investigating this important issue and salient recommendations were made.
Technology Expertise Keywords
workers' compensation costs, safety, employee health, occupational injury, environmental health, work disability, graduate medical education; employee wellness, burnout and resiliency, prevention, occupational infectious disease, heat related illness
Selected Publications
EJ Bernacki, DL Hunt, NF Tsourmas, L Yuspeh, RA Lavin, N Kalia, Attributes of Long Duration COVID-19 Workers' Compensation Claims from 36 US States. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2022 Feb 15
G Vanichkachorn, J Green-McKenzie, E Emmett, Occupational health care, Family Medicine: Principles and Practice, 625-640 2022/1/1
J Green-McKenzie, FS Shofer, J Matthei, R Biester, M Deibler, Clinical and Psychological Factors Associated with Return to Work Among United States Diplomats who sustained a work-related injury while on assignment in Cuba, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2021/12/9
J Green-McKenzie, FS Shofer, F Momplaisir, BJ Kuter, G Kruse, U Bialal, Factors Associated With COVID-19 Vaccine Receipt by Health Care Personnel at a Major Academic Hospital During the First Months of Vaccine Availability, JAMA network open 4 (12), e2136582-e2136582 2021/12/1
B Mansfield, FS Shofer, J Green-McKenzie, The Effect of Introduction of Motorized Stretchers on Hospital-Based Patient Transporter Injuries and Resultant Workers’ Compensation Costs, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 63 (12), 1078-1080 2021/12/1
