Rating Impairment the Right Way

Self-Assess Your AMA Guides Rating Skills

It’s fast, free, and fun: just take our 10-item mini-assessment of knowledge and skills. If you do well, you can confidently proceed with the CIR® certification exam. If you don’t ace it, consider our online training and resources. There’s no time like the present!

Take one or both now — no charge:
Fifth Edition Self-Assessment Sixth Edition Self-Assessment

It is imperative that impairment evaluations are accurate and unbiased. Do you know best practices to produce consistently accurate evaluations and reports that stand up to scrutiny and contribute to your success? We believe all members of our respective professions involved in workers’ compensation and personal injury cases should:

We provide comprehensive, in-depth learning experiences at www.emedicolegal.com and the resource sites of www.fifthedition.com and www.sixthedition.com.

Better Practices, Better Outcomes

The AMA Guides are the “Gold Standard” for assessing impairment. We’re making it easier to master their use:

  • Convenient online training — your most efficient and cost-effective approach to training – available 24/7 – no travel expense and no time away from work for classes or tests! Receive Certificate of Participation upon completing requirements for Fifth Edition and/or Sixth Edition.
  • Authoritative training by Christopher R. Brigham, MD, Editor of the Guides Casebook and Guides Newsletter, and Senior Editor of the AMA Guides (Sixth Edition).
  • Participate in monthly subscriber-only online Question and Answer sessions.
  • Better outcomes through improved processes, accuracy, and professionalism.
  • Promoting best practices contributing to your success.

⧉ Terminology for Newcomers

Impairment is “a significant deviation, loss, or loss of use of any body structure or function in an individual with a health condition, disorder, or disease.”

Impairment differs from the concept of disability, which is “an umbrella term for activity limitations and/or participation restrictions in an individual with a health condition, disorder, or disease.”

Impairment evaluation refers to the “acquisition, recording, and reporting of medical evidence, using a standard method such as described in the Guides to determine permanent impairment associated with a physical or mental condition.” The result is…

…an impairment rating, a “consensus-derived percentage estimate of the loss of activity, which reflects the severity of impairment for a given health condition, and the degree of associated limitations in terms of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs).” —AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, Glossary


This site, impairment.com, and Brigham and Associates, Inc. are independent of the American Medical Association (AMA). The training program and resources provided are neither endorsed nor sponsored by the AMA, and the opinions and content of the training presentations and learning content represent the views of the presenters and are not necessarily the views of the AMA, particularly on matters of medical policy.