A review of physicians' estimates of impairment after trauma.

This scientific poster presentation discusses the increasing awareness of the importance of impairment and disability after injury. It is estimated that for every traffic related death in the United States, for example, there are over ten hospital admissions and over hunderd injuries treated on an outpatient basis. However, it is not clear how physicians estimate their patients' potential impairment and also what their perception is of the distribution of impairment across the spectrum of injuries. The advent of the Injury Impairment Scale (ISS) will help to reduce inter-observer variability and will therefore facilitate the standardization of impairment research.