Medico-legal reasoning in disability assessment: a focus group and validation study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Decisions on disability pensions are based, among others, on medical reports. The way these medical assessments are performed is largely unclear. The aim of the study was to determine which grounds are used by social insurance physicians (SIPs) in these assessments and to determine if the identification of these grounds can help improve the quality of assessments in social insurance practice. The article describes a focus group study and a questionnaire study with SIPs in four different countries.

Method

Using focus group discussions of SIPs discussing the same case in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia (N = 29) we determined the arguments and underlying grounds as used by the SIP's. We used a questionnaire study among other SIPs (N = 60) in the same co

SUBMITTER: de Boer W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2571101 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature