Speakers:

Panel Discussion: LNC Practice Areas

(* Please see speaker's biography listed under her main presentation below.)

• Marjorie Berg Pugatch, in-house defense*
• Elizabeth Zorn, in-house plaintiff
• Barbara Levin, expert witness*
• Mindy Cohen, LNC business*
• Georgia Pasqualone, forensics*
• Cheryl Kaufman, life care planning

Elizabeth K. Zorn, RN BSN LNCC

Ms. Zorn has worked as an in-house LNC for the past 25 years in both defense and plaintiff firms.  Currently she works at Faraci Lange, a plaintiff law firm in Rochester, New York.  She has authored and edited numerous publications for the AALNC and has lectured to both law organizations and nursing groups.  She is co-founder of LNCExchange, a non fee based medical-legal listserv for LNCs.  Ms. Zorn is currently serving a three year term on the AALNC board of directors.  She attended Vassar College from 1972 to 1974 and earned a BSN from the University of Rochester in 1976.  She is a Legal Nurse Consultant Certified.    

Cheryl Kaufman, RN BScN CLCP CNLCP

Ms. Kaufman is owner and principal of CK Medical-Legal Consulting Services based in Massachusetts. She brings with her more than 25 years of nursing experience to Legal Nurse Consulting and Life Care Planning. In addition to her early clinical experience in neonatal intensive care, pediatrics and caring for patients who suffered a stroke, her career path predominantly focused on infectious diseases, oncology and biotechnology and nursing education with emphasis on oncology disease management with specific chemotherapeutics and biological response modifiers, drug-drug interactions and patient safety issues. She is currently a full time independent Legal Nurse Consultant and Nurse Life Care Planner.

Research Techniques:  Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Kathleen Ashton, PhD, APRN, BC

Dr. Kathleen Ashton is a Professor of Nursing in the Jefferson School of Nursing of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Her research interest is in the area of women and heart disease.  She has conducted many funded research studies and written numerous grant applications to support her program of research.  As a legal nurse consultant, she has served as an expert witness reviewing legal cases for plaintiff and defense firms for over fifteen years.  Currently, she serves as a reviewer for three nursing journals and as a board member for several community and professional organizations.  She is a co-editor of the recently published 4th edition of Nursing Malpractice.

Point of View: Working Up the Case, Plaintiff v Defense

Rosale Lobo, RN MSN CNS LNCC with Marjorie Berg Pugatch, RN MA EMT-B LNCC

Rosale Lobo has been a legal nurse consultant since 2003. As a full time independent consultant working behind the scenes, Rosale has professional relationships with several attorneys in Connecticut, North Carolina, South Carolina and Colorado. She has been a nurse since the mid eighties and prides herself on being a specialist in the field of nursing documentation. As a PESIHealthcare speaker since 2007, Rosale travels the country speaking to nurses about traditional and electronic nursing documentation strategies. Rosale received her MSN from Hunter College (NYC) and is a doctoral student at Walden University's School of Public Policy and Healthcare Administration.  She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau and the Association of Public Health Administrators and is a Legal Nurse Consultant Certified.

Marjorie Berg Pugatch, RN MA EMT-B LNCC with Rosale Lobo, RN MSN CNS LNCC

Marjorie Berg Pugatch has been a legal nurse consultant since 1998 at Lewis Johs Avallone Aviles, LLP, a major insurance defense firm in the New York metropolitan area.  She is also the founder of Precision Legal Nurse Consulting, an independent consulting entity.  She has been a member of AALNC since 1998 and serves on AALNC’s Awareness Committee.  She received a BSN from Syracuse University and an MA from New York University.  She is a volunteer EMT-B at Roslyn Rescue Hook and Ladder Co. #1 and is also a Legal Nurse Consultant Certified.   

Finessing Your Writing Skills

Patricia Iyer, RN MSN LNCC

Pat Iyer is president of Med League Support Services, Inc., a legal nurse consulting company established in 1989 in Flemington, NJ.  Ms. Iyer has testified as an expert witness for 20 years. She is the editor or coauthor of 26 books. Her most recent book is Nursing Malpractice, Fourth Edition, which she co-edited.  She was the chief editor of the AALNC online legal nurse consulting course, and is a frequent presenter at AALNC conferences.  She is a past President of the AALNC and is a Legal Nurse Consultant Certified.  She has been the recipient of AALNC's Lifetime Achievement Award and Volunteer of the Year Award.  She earned her MSN from the University of Pennsylvania. 

News in Health Care Regulation

Dennis J. Alessi, Esq.

Dennis J. Alessi is the lead attorney at Mandelbaum Salzberg, a law firm in West Orange, New Jersey.  Mr. Alessi has over a decade of experience in representing various types of health care and related companies, as well as individual professionals, including management and billing service providers, third party administrators, industry trade associations, group purchasing organizations, surgical centers, medical groups, physicians and other health care professionals.  He received his JD from the New England School of Law and an LLM with honors, from New York University.  

The 7 Secrets to Successful Marketing

Joe Constantino, MBA 
A seasoned marketing strategist and speaker; Joe Constantino is also the founder and owner of Business Marketing Success and President of Duct Tape Marketing Consulting LLC.  He is a high energy, passionate marketing coach and consultant who helps coaches, consultants and professional service providers who want to grow their business by implementing a strategic marketing system.  He has an MBA with a concentration in marketing and has worked with hundreds of business owners to revitalize and revamp their businesses.  Joe has helped them to discover their hidden assets to develop real world strategies and lead generation tools that get huge results.

Reflections:  My First Year as an In-House LNC

Julie Dickinson, RN MBA BSN LNCC 

With over a decade of clinical nursing experience, Julie Dickinson began working as a Legal Nurse Consultant at Fontaine, Alissi & Knapp, PC in Hartford, Connecticut in 2008.  She has been a member of the AALNC since 2007 and is active on the national level.  Ms. Dickinson was a board member of the Southern New England Chapter of the AALNC prior to co-founding the Connecticut Chapter of AALNC in 2010, where she is currently serving as president.  Ms. Dickinson is the chairwoman of the regional conference committee and is a Legal Nurse Consultant Certified.

The Case of the Lettuce Patch Murder (a forensic nursing case study)

Georgia Pasqualone, RN MSN MSFS CNS DABFN

Ms. Pasqualone is an internationally known forensic expert in the interpretation and reconstruction of crime scenes and has lectured and written extensively on forensic nursing in general and on the subject of collecting evidence and forensic photo-documentation of crime scenes.  She is currently an adjunct professor at Boston College in their Graduate Forensic Program and is an instructor in the Massachusetts Department of Health Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program.  “Ace” Pasqualone has served as an expert witness in medical malpractice and criminal cases.  She consults at Mahoney Criminal Defense Group of Cambridge, Massachusetts.     

Demonstrative Evidence

Mindy Cohen, RN MSN LNCC

Mindy Cohen is past President of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC) and has over 25 years of nursing experience.  She has provided legal nurse consulting services for over 16 years as President of Mindy Cohen & Associates.  Ms. Cohen’s company provides litigation support for plaintiff and defense firms in the areas of medical malpractice, personal injury, workers’ compensation, product liability, toxic tort, criminal and family law.  She holds a BSN and MSN from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Legal Nurse Consultant Certified.

Missed CVA Diagnosis in the ED

Tammy J. Murphy, RN Advanced Clinician III

Ms. Murphy was one of the authors who updated the Emergency Nursing Malpractice chapter for the 4th edition of Nursing Malpractice.  Tammy has worked in the emergency department as charge nurse at the Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Massachusetts for twenty-two years.  In 2001, she was the recipient of “Plymouth Area Emergency Medical Systems Nurse of the Year” and chairs the Emergency Department Service Excellence team.  She has her own independent legal nurse consulting practice, Medical Legal Consulting Services.  Her services include expert witnessing for the plaintiff and defense. She has served on the Board of the Southern New England Chapter of AALNC and is a past president.

Expert Witnessing:  Direct & Cross examinations
Steven Babitsky, Esq.

Attorney Babitsky was a personal injury litigator for twenty years and is the former managing partner of the firm Kistin, Babitsky, Latimer and Beitman.  Steven Babitsky is the president and founder of SEAK, located in Falmouth, Massachusetts, the world’s leading provider of expert witness training and texts.  Mr. Babitsky trains hundreds of experts every year through SEAK’s scheduled programs, invited presentations and customized expert witness training programs.  He has presented to corporations, associations, and governmental agencies.  He also serves as a one-to-one consultant to expert witnesses who desire to improve their expert practices.   

When Pressure Rises and Results in Litigation (mock trial)

Barbara Levin, RN BSN ONC CMSRN LNCC with Patricia Iyer, RN MSN LNCC

Barbara J. Levin is the Clinical Scholar of the orthopaedic trauma unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.  She has published and lectured extensively about patient safety, orthopaedics, and documentation practices.  Barbara Levin co-edited and authored chapters for the books Medical Legal Aspects of Medical Records and Nursing Malpractice.  Ms. Levin served as President of the AALNC and also served on its board for five years. During her term on the board, she chaired the committees tasked with developing and writing Legal Nurse Consulting: Scope & Standards of Practice and the AALNC position statement The Specialty Practice of Legal Nurse Consulting.  Ms. Levin is a Legal Nurse Consultant Certified.

Conference Planning Committee:

Mary-Ann Abramczyk, RN, MSN, CSTR, CLNC   

Julie Dickinson, RN, BSN, MBA, LNCC (conference chair)

Jane D. Heron, RN, BSN, MBA, CLNC  

Barbara J. Levin, RN, BSN, ONC, CMSRN, LNCC   

Rosale Lobo, RN, MSN, CNS, LNCC

Marjorie Berg Pugatch, RN, MA, EMT-B, LNCC   

Lynn Temperini, RN, CLNC