[Expert assessment of work disability--do we realize the effects?]

Three inquiries on the results of medical expertises concerning incapacitation for work in cases where employers had doubted this fact, seem to establish that the Medical Service of the Social Health Insurance (MDK) is quite capable of keeping improper use of the epithet "unfit for work" in check. If the design of the studies is critically analysed, it becomes evident that most problems are still unsolved. More clarity regarding the sense or nonsense of this work-intensive topic may result from a carefully and completely planned randomised trial. Such a study appears mandatory, the more so since the economic benefit of the expertises does not seem to be very bright, taking several hypotheses into consideration.