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After a career in private practice and public health, raising children and the collapse of her marriage, Dr. Jennifer Christian said, “I pushed the reset button on my life and started experimenting to figure out what kind of bird I actually was – what kind of wings I had and how far I could go.”

She knew she wanted to be a CEO when she was 50, but getting hired as one was a problem because she’d never been one before. So she started a business devoted to reducing unnecessary medical disability costs.

Now, at age 61, she’s gone a step further and has created a nonprofit organization that draws together physicians, employers, insurers and unions to discuss ways to work together to support injured, ill and aging people to stay at work and stay employed.

When Christian started a business called Webility in Wayland, Mass., with a colleague, David Siktberg, she said, “Our original vision was that we were going to provide something that had been missing, which is training for doctors in disability prevention and management.”

“Not many people realize that whenever somebody gets injured or ill, and the question arises whether or not they can get work, doctors get involved,” she explained. “What they say about your health is used by your employer to determine if you get disability benefits or sick leave or worker’s comp.”

Christian became familiar with the thorniness of disability management while working as a doctor in private practice. Then she crossed industries, working as a medical doctor for a worker’s compensation company, a managed care organization, an HMO and a consulting firm.

She recognized that what was essentially a business problem for employers and insurers presented an opportunity. “Doctors are part of this system, but they’re not prepared for it, they don’t feel comfortable with it, and they’re not trained for it,” she pointed out, adding that medical schools don’t address the issue in their curriculum.

At Webility she creates bridges between doctors and nurses and employers and insurance companies. “Doctors tend to think that the stay-at-work or return-to-work process is not really medical, so it’s not their responsibility, and employers tend to think it is medical, so it’s not their responsibility,” Christian said, “and so somebody who’s injured or ill or just getting old tends to fall between the cracks.”

Her latest passion, a nonprofit called the 60 Summits Project, grew out of a project Christian led for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The 21-member committee produced guidelines on how the stay-at-home and return-to-work disability process works.

“The fact that (the process) doesn’t work better hurts people,” Christian explained. “They’re ending up on benefit systems they don’t need, and they’re losing their footing in the job market. It’s also costing employers substantially in terms of lost productivity.”

The 60 Summit organizers are planning a series of summits across North America that will draw together physicians, employers, insurers and unions to discuss ways to work together to support injured, ill and aging people to stay at work and stay employed.

What it really comes down to, Christian said, is that keeping people engaged and working is critical because it plays an important role in identity and self-esteem.

"The meaning of life is wound up in making a contribution and playing a role,” Christian said. “And when someone stops working in these situations, what society loses is somebody who is contributing, and what they end up with is somebody who is taking.”