IMPAIRMENT ASSESSMENT IN REHABILITATION-MEDICINE - THE POTENTIAL ROLEOF TECHNOLOGY TO ASSIST CLINICAL DECISION-MAKING

Assessment in rehabilitation medicine needs to be conceptualized using the ICIDH. Generally, an un-impaired function is conditional for good performance at the disability level. So, treatment at the level of im pairment might be necessary to eventually minimize the amount of disab ility. At this point it is compulsory to assess the impairment firstly for an indication of the therapy, and also during and/or after the im pairment therapy for evaluation. Finally, the tentative idea that the impairment was responsible for the disability is subjected to evaluati on using the D-level assessment again. In this concept, specific asses sment of impairment is nested within the assessment at the level of di sability. It is concluded that this framework of clinical decision mak ing in rehabilitation medicine can be used to judge whether instrument s for impairment assessment will potentially be useful in clinical dec ision making.