[The ERTOMIS Assessment Method EAM system--an aid in the rehabilitation of handicapped patients at work]

ERTOMIS Foundation, prompted by the WHO publication in 1980 of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH), has developed an assessment system for vocational integration and placement of disabled persons. This EAM System is based on the comparison of requirements and abilities profiles, both comprised of 65 identically worded criteria for describing elemental functions. A pilot study was carried out by Forschungsgemeinschaft Arbeitsmedizinisches Zentrum Siegerland/ERTOMIS Stiftung, of Siegen, verifying the EAM system's effectiveness and reliability on two groups of industrial medical clients, i.e. "routine cases" (severely disabled workers) and "problem cases" (workers with performance alterations). Study findings show that the presence of overstrain can be reliably proven and necessary action be reliably inferred by means of the EAM system. This permits workers to be retained while safeguarding their continued good health. The system moreover shows where remedial action has to be taken from a preventive point of view. On account of its use of elemental criteria, the system can be applied across trades and occupations, and is neither restricted to a specific branch of the social protection system.