About this Research Topic
People of all age groups who suffer from an acute or chronic disease or injury experience impairments in body functions and structures, limitations in activities, and restrictions in participation in a broad variety of forms and degrees of severity. These problems in functioning can change over time due to the natural course of the health condition, or an intervention, change in the physical environment, or another contextual factor. In addition to coding the diagnosis using an ICD code, the documentation and assessment of functioning and its change over time are essential to obtain information on problems in the everyday life of the persons affected. The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) offers a framework and a classification to classify functioning and disability using its components body functions, body structures, activities, and participation as well as contextual factors. To assess functioning and disability in a standardized way instruments, assessments, and documentation tools must be used or developed. With increasing digitalization in many areas of the society, including health care and social services, electronic ICF-based data entry and documentation tools are becoming increasingly important.
This Research Topic aims to collect information on the development and application of ICF-based documentation, assessment, and application tools. The various possibilities of ICF-based tools shall be presented. These range from patient-reported outcomes, (health) professional or expert scales, needs assessment tools, checklists, tests, and documentation forms or digital applications. We welcome contributions on systematic compilations and analyses of already-existing instruments and tools, studies on the development and application of new instruments used in clinical practice.
To support a broad range of contributors and types of contributions, we accept the following original research papers: study protocols, studies focusing on the development of ICF-based tools, validation studies, review papers (such as rapid reviews, scoping reviews), qualitative studies (e.g., in the scope of process evaluation studies, cognitive interview pretest).
This Research Topic aims to collect information on the development and application of ICF-based documentation, assessment, and application tools. The various possibilities of ICF-based tools shall be presented. These range from patient-reported outcomes, (health) professional or expert scales, needs assessment tools, checklists, tests, and documentation forms or digital applications. We welcome contributions on systematic compilations and analyses of already-existing instruments and tools, studies on the development and application of new instruments used in clinical practice.
To support a broad range of contributors and types of contributions, we accept the following original research papers: study protocols, studies focusing on the development of ICF-based tools, validation studies, review papers (such as rapid reviews, scoping reviews), qualitative studies (e.g., in the scope of process evaluation studies, cognitive interview pretest).
Keywords: ICF, Functioning, Disability, Assessment, Validation, Reliability, Digitalization, Patient-Reported Outcome
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
