Dr. David Fletcher was the featured speaker at the Illinois Industrial Commission Chicago training for arbitrators. The arbitrators are the worker's compensation judges for the State of Illinois. Dr. Fletcher is recognized for his expertise and is one of the leading experts in the State of Illinois on the management and treatment of work related injuries. His talk was on delayed recovery in work injuries and various factors that account for delayed recovery, which is a major cost issue for the Illinois economy.

The factors Dr. Fletcher discussed included employee factors, medical care system factors, employer issues, as well as the worker's compensation system itself. Dr. Fletcher's discussion created lively discussion among the arbitrators. They talked about techniques to help prevent delayed recovery and gave the arbitrators training on how to make decisions in cases where there is evidence of worker's compensation fraud either on the part of the company or the employee. Dr. Fletcher was asked to come back in the fall of 2001 for additional training. The topic of delayed recovery was the topic at this year's Work Injury conference hosted by Dr. Fletcher at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Urbana/Champaign.