Project:
The potential applicability of the ICF in medical work capacity evaluations of persons suffering from chronic pain disorders.

Besides the provision of a common language in the assessment process the contribution of the ICF in the context of medical work capacity evaluations could lie in the standardized description of a claimant’s functioning which in turn could be the basis for achieving more transparency in the decision-process leading from the ICD-10-diagnosis to a certain ability to work and finally to the disability pension. It might also be very helpful in the assignment of claimant to an adapted job and to individual intervention and rehabilitation programs to increase his or her work ability.

Therefore, the overall objective of the PhD-thesis is to explore the applicability of the ICF in medical
work capacity evaluations of persons suffering from pain disorders. The PhD-thesis will provide a set of the most relevant ICF categories  for medical reports on claimants with chronic pain disorders in different medical disciplines, with a focus on psychiatric assessments. This set of ICF categories could form the basis for the construction and practical validation of ICF-based tools for disability evaluations.