Impairment assessment in rehabilitation medicine: the potential role of 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 impairment might be necessary to eventually minimize the amount of disability. At this point it is compulsory to assess the impairment firstly for an indication of the therapy, and also during and/or after the impairment therapy for evaluation. Finally, the tentative idea that the impairment was responsible for the disability is subjected to evaluation using the D-level assessment again. In this concept, specific assessment of impairment is nested within the assessment at the level of disability. It is concluded that this framework of clinical decision making in rehabilitation medicine can be used to judge whether instruments for impairment assessment will potentially be useful in clinical decision making.