Abstract

Healthcare providers who work in physical, mental and emotional rehabilitation specialties work to regain an individual’s ability to perform activities of daily living and occupation specific function that has been altered by disease, injury or natural processes. This functional impairment can affect far beyond the functional outcome and can have significant adverse effects on patients’ emotions, sleep and ability to perform tasks associated with daily living. Within the international healthcare community, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is used as a framework to help describe and organize information on functioning and disability. The ICF seeks to approach the deleterious effects of disease, injury, and aging from a standardized process that incorporates the numerous variables associated with living functionally. Given its global usage, the ICF can provide a standard language for defining as well as measuring health and disability. Standardizing this language has the potential to enhance interprofessional collaboration as healthcare providers seek to provide optimal outcomes for patients. This review of the current literature highlights the benefits of the ICF, while also detailing how the ICF can be used to enhance sports medicine care.