The Australasian Permanent Impairment Assessors Academy (APIAA)

Specific Australian PIA Training and Education delivered by local and experienced Trainers.

APIAA is a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation of a specialist interest group (SIG) that support the educational structure for Australasian doctors who perform, or want to perform, ‘impairment’ assessments, under the various compensation schemes and jurisdictions in Australia.

The development of APIAA has closely paralleled the drive by Safe Work Australia (SWA), to develop National Guidelines for the performance of such assessments in Australia as part of the harmonisation of the compensation schemes across the various states and territories. In fact, APIAA has provided to SWA a National Training Programme in Permanent Impairment Assessment (PIA) for use and delivery by the various workers’ compensation authorities based on the proposed ‘Guides for the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment’ developed by these authorities.

APIAA is now steered by a wider founding committee of Australian medical specialists who represent various medical disciplines and are well known as Trainers in the PIA arena. With this new structure APIAA will be able to develop a sustainable PIA platform that is pivotal to education, training, information-sharing and resources applicable to all Australian jurisdictions.

APIAA believes specific and relevant Australian training, given the legal nuances and differences in our States and Territories, is essential. Such specificity has not been mandated in previous trainings offered in Australia and APIAA now complements local delivery with recommendations of ‘impairment’ champions (the trainers) for all Australian jurisdictions.

Furthermore, as there is no PIA Train-the-Trainer facility established in Australia, APIAA will identify suitable participants and initiate training programs so that knowledge, experience and skill can be suitably transferred and preserved.

It is anticipated that APIAA supported by all the stakeholders will maintain and elevate the PIA quality-standard in Australia.

APIAA anticipates that this innovative Australian PIA approach to becoming the one-stop-PIA-shop will greatly benefit all stakeholders now and into our future.