Medical Review Board (MRB) Members

Critical areas of medical expertise are highlighted in the summaries of members’ professional experience below. They include:

Orthopedic Surgery (Musculoskeletal Disease and Injury) - Gunnar Andersson, M.D.
Occupational and Internal Medicine – Kurt Hegmann, M.D.
Occupational and Internal Medicine – Benjamin Hoffman, M.D.
Sleep Medicine – Barbara Phillips, M.D.
Surgery – Carl Soderstrom, M.D.

Gunnar B.J. Andersson, M.D., Ph.D., (Illinois) is the William A. Hark—Susanne G. Swift professor and chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois. During his tenure as chairman, he also served as president of the medical staff, vice dean for surgical sciences and services, and senior vice president of medical affairs, each for two-year periods. He is board certified in orthopedic surgery (musculoskeletal diseases and injuries) both in the United States and in Sweden. Dr. Andersson received his M.D. from the University of Göteborg, Sweden, completed his residency at Sahlgren University Hospital, and obtained a Ph.D. in medical science at the University of Göteborg in 1974. After a fellowship at the London Hospital in London, England, he joined the faculty at the University of Göteborg where he served for 10 years. In 1985 he moved to the United States to his current position at Rush University Medical Center.

His clinical area of expertise is spine surgery, while his research interests are disc degeneration, epidemiology, and occupational biomechanics. Dr. Andersson is a past president of the Orthopaedic Research Society, the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, and the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians. He has been a council member of the National Institutes of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, chairman of the Research Committee at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and a member of three Institute of Medicine committees. He is a member of 15 editorial boards, a deputy editor for Spine, editor in chief of Contemporary Spine Surgery, and an associate editor of Clinical Biomechanics. He is the author of more than 250 original publications, more than 150 books and book chapters, and 430 abstracts. He was senior editor of the 5th Edition of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.

Kurt Hegmann, M.D., M.P.H., (Utah) is director and associate professor of the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah. He is board certified in internal medicine and occupational medicine and chairs the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's (ACOEM’s) Evidence-Based Practice Committee.

Dr. Hegmann has written papers on commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver medical certification, upper limb musculoskeletal disorders, low back pain, and other musculoskeletal disorders, and has authored three textbook chapters on CMV driver medical examinations. He has received research grants from private sector companies as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health—NIOSH). Dr. Hegmann is editor in chief of ACOEM’s Occupational Medicine Practice Guidelines.

Benjamin H. Hoffman, M.D., M.P.H., (Texas) is the vice president and chief medical officer of Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas. He has held medical director positions in the past with numerous Fortune 200 companies.

Dr. Hoffman has published widely and currently holds an academic appointment as professor (adjunct) at the University of Texas School of Public Health. He has held similar appointments at the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth Medical School, and Lahey Clinic—an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

His previous experience includes occupational and environmental health work at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, Stanford University, the University of California at San Francisco, the Pacific Medical Center in California, Indian Health Services in Arizona, Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, and Cambodian refugee camps in Khoa-I-Dang. He is a board member of the Kelsey Research Foundation and the Harris County Hospital District Foundation. Dr. Hoffman was awarded the Environmental Industries Association Distinguished Service Award at its annual meeting in 2007.

Dr. Hoffman is a graduate of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at Brown University. He was a Dana Fellow in Environmental Health at Yale School of Medicine, received a master's degree in public health at the Yale University School of Public Health, and is board certified in internal medicine and occupational medicine.

Barbara Phillips, M.D., M.S.P.H., (Kentucky) is former chair of the National Sleep Foundation and directs the sleep medicine program at the University of Kentucky Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. She is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, critical care medicine, and sleep medicine. Dr. Phillips is a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and serves on the Board of Regents, and the Sleep Institute for the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

Dr. Phillips has been a medical consultant for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the RAND Corporation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies. She has served on the boards of the American Lung Association, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American Board of Sleep Medicine, and the Medical Advisory Board of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research. Dr. Phillips has led research studies in areas such as obesity, the epidemiology of restless leg syndrome and sleep-disordered breathing, alternative treatments for obstructive sleep apnea, sleep-disordered breathing in the elderly, attention deficit disorder and sleep, and sleep loss among physicians in training. She has lectured and presented nationally and internationally on sleep disorders.

Carl Soderstrom, M.D., F.A.C.S., (Maryland) was appointed chief of the Medical Advisory Board of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration in 2005. In this capacity, he leads the board by advising on medical fitness to drive and research-based policy development. Dr. Soderstrom is adjunct professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is an associate faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health and Policy Management.

Dr. Soderstrom earned his medical degree from the State University of New York in Brooklyn and completed his general surgery residency at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. He served as a major in the U.S. Army followed by a trauma surgery fellowship at the Shock Trauma Center of the University of Maryland, and then joined the Center’s surgery staff. During his 25-year tenure at the Shock Trauma Center and the National Study Center for Trauma and Emergency Medical Systems, he authored over 100 scientific publications and became professor of surgery. He has been principal investigator on numerous research efforts including two awarded by the National Institutes of Health. Many of his peer-reviewed papers address substance abuse and injury, particularly relative to vehicular crashes. His current research involves medical fitness to drive.

Dr. Soderstrom has served and continues to serve on injury prevention task groups, including: the Surgeon General’s Work Group on Drunk Driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Partners in Progress Work Group, the Driver Fitness Working Group for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and the Older Drivers Team of the Maryland Strategic Highway Safety Plan. He has testified on many legislative initiatives involving traffic safety. In 2008 he began a two-year term as president of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine.