Title: Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE)
Headings: Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE)
9 Articles in Volume 10, Issue #4
Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE)
Selecting The Appropriate Test
FCEs Current Scope
Measurement Properties of the FCE
Responsiveness and Reliability of the FCE
Impairment/Disability Testing
Conclusion

Content: Does it measure what it purports to measure (validity)? Is the FCE sensitive enough to measuring functionally-important changes that might translate into a higher probability of a patient returning to work? And finally, are the results of the FCE-WCE predictive of the primary outcome of interest, namely, the return to work? The results of these assessments have implications for employment, compensability determinations, further medical/rehabilitative efforts, disability evaluations, and indemnity/cash benefits. 7
The number of FCE vendors has risen noticeably over the last 15 years, and this form of testing is often used in combination with work conditioning and work hardening (job simulation) programs aimed at returning injured workers back to their respective workplaces. The various vendors have their own proprietary systems that they sell to providers—mostly physical and occupational therapists who are those ultimately performing the testing. We have no idea how the various FCE tests sold relate to each other. In other words, are the test results from one system transferrable to another? Is there a gold standard FCE out there? If there was, we could begin to compare FCE systems with the gold standard and derive an estimate of concurrent validity but, as it stands, we do not.