[Assessment of capacity and job requirements at the interface between medical and occupational rehabilitation]

The article deals with the development, nationally and internationally, of assessment systems permitting parallel appraisal of an individual's abilities and the requirements presented by the working conditions at hand. By comparison of abilities and requirements, these assessments are aimed at concretizing individual need for intervention as well as prompt practical implementation in view of occupational placement of people with disabilities. The course of development is of special interest in this context as the description of abilities starts out from the basic concepts of the ICIDH while description of the working conditions is based on ergonomic concepts. Uniting these different developments in an integrated system for assessing abilities and requirements, has been achieved by ERTOMIS Foundation, with effective support on the part of K.-A. Jochheim, through an empirically-practically oriented approach, whereas a corresponding multidisciplinary research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Labour, in light of its scientific-theoretical background gave preference to a hierarchical-modular structural concept. At a European level as well, both the European Council (partial agreement) and the European Union Helios II working groups have exclusively acknowledged assessment systems of this kind as providing an important bridge between the field of rehabilitation and the world of work.