Certified Disability Evaluator I, II & III

CDE

For the convenience of the reader, this Certified page provides links to pages pertinent to the CDE credential. You will find direct access links to the CDE application page, the CDE  examination page, and the CDE recertification page. Please click on the appropriate menu button for the item you need.

  CDE I, II & III Application Form

  CDE I, II & III Non Pre-approved Recertification Form

 CDE I, II< III Pre-Approved CEU Recertification Form

  CDE I, II & III Examination Download

Purpose

Qualifications

The ICHCC understands the multitude of disciplines involved in measuring impairment and disability. Therefore, it designed the test for all allied health care providers, grouping specialties by categories. This grouping is based on educational/training focus and does not represent a ranking based on ability or status. The categories are listed below.

• Category I - All physicians designated as primary care providers, sub-specialists, or specialists in the administering of medical, dental, and/or chiropractic related services. Specific physician groups include medical doctors (M.D.), osteopathic physicians (D.O.), dental surgeons (D.D.S.), and chiropractors (D.C.).
• Category II - All persons who provide assistance to physicians in the treatment of injured persons, and/or whose practice is involved with providing symptom relief and function restoration through modality and therapeutic applications. These specialties include physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, kinesiologist, physiologists, psychologists, and doctoral level vocational evaluators.
• Category III - All persons who are influential in the outcome of the injured person's disability litigation, and include vocational evaluators, vocational case managers, rehabilitation nurses, and rehabilitation counselors. These individuals may assume various roles in the disability litigation process, such as performing functional capacity evaluations, labor market analyses, assisting in the placement of the injured worker back into the labor market, psychometric testing, and managing the medical care/costs associated with the respective disability case.

The examination is structured such that the examinee is required to demonstrate a working knowledge of research and resource utilization, as well as to demonstrate one's examination skills applied to the NADEP model. The written examination consists of two case studies which are presented with varying orthopaedic and psychological problems. The examinee is required to respond to a series of inquiries about different aspects of the cases, and a review of the literature is required for each inquiry response. Each of the categories identified above has its own set of inquiries, with some crossover between categories since the material is directly related to the classroom content of the core courses. Thus, examinees are required to review the literature to respond to the inquiries, and apply their responses to fit the NADEP clinical examination protocol. All inquires are developed by the Commissioners, and the Commissioners have the final approval of the examination content and list of inquires before dissemination to the qualified certification candidates. Topics in which one's knowledge and expertise are measured on the written examination include:

• Medical Diagnoses/Correlates to Disability
• Psychological Disorders and Correlates to Disability
• Examination Tools, Instruments, and Work Sample Selection and Utilization
• Legislation Impacting Evaluation Protocol
• Report Writing and Results/Performance Interpretation.
• Practice Theory and Concepts

Recertification

The Certified disability Evaluator professional must have his or her CDE credential renewed every 3 years by a demonstration of 30 hours of (CHCC approved) continuing education hours