Development of a clinical tool for rating categories of the ICF Rehabilitation Set in Polish practice

Rehabilitation is considered a key health strategy in the 21st century. The aim of rehabilitation is to optimize the functioning of patients. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a framework for describing and organizing information on functioning and disability. Current international efforts to implement ICF in rehabilitation practise include the implementation of ICF Core Sets and operationalize ICF tools for clinics. The aim of the study is to create simple, intuitive descriptions and an initial reference guide for the assessment of the ICF Rehabilitation Set in Polish practice. The development of the Polish version of ICF Rehabilitation Set involved the following steps: (1) identification of ICF Rehabilitation Set categories; (2) development simple, intuitive descriptions; (3) the drafting of the rating reference guide by a multidisciplinary panel following the process employed to develop the Japanese version. The Polish version of ICF Rehabilitation Set, the simple, intuitive descriptions for 29 categories and the rating reference guides were successfully developed. The Polish version of ICF Rehabilitation Set proposed by us is a reference framework for the harmonization of existing information on the functioning and disability of people participating in the rehabilitation process.