[Reasons for non-reproducibility of sociomedical assessments of performance capability in disability pension expert opinion reports].

Abstract

The German pension insurance continuously supervises the quality of disability pension expert opinion reports by a standardized peer review process. The current study analyses the concrete reasons of the peers for non-reproducibility of sociomedical judgments concerning performance capability in these expert opinion reports.Free-text comments documented by peers in the peer review process 2021 of the German pension insurance with respect to shortcomings in the reproducibility of sociomedical judgments (n=569) were evaluated in a structured-inductive manner using Mayring's qualitative content analysis.Contentwise the reasons for the non-reproducibility of sociomedical judgments in these expert opinion reports comprise recurrent shortcomings in anamnesis/clinical assessment, specifically with respect to confirmation of diagnosis, as well as gaps/inconsistencies in the chain of arguments concerning sociomedical evaluation of performance capability.Identification of these reasons concretizes the complexity of the sociomedical evaluation process, allows sharpening of the content expectations towards the expert consultants and further sensitizes readers to assessment of the sociomedical key aspects in expert reports.