Social Security Disability Medical Tests

Description

Evaluate Social Security Medical Disability Test Results

Effective advocacy requires informed and critical evaluation of your clients’ medical tests and their results. Were they properly performed? By the right person? Interpreted correctly? What is the chance of a false negative result? Here you will find normal test ranges, predictive values, relevant listings, proper technique, and more for 470 medical tests. You will be able to critically examine the application of test results to disability claims.

Here is the authoritative and detailed guidance from a former SSA Chief Medical Consultant who has personally made more than 50,000 disability determinations. Dr. David Morton’s Social Security Disability Medical Tests answers the following questions for nearly every test you will encounter:

• When is the test warranted?
• Can SSA purchase it? Does it commonly do so?
• What are the relevant social security medical listings?
• What complications can result?
• How should the test be performed?
• Is the test objective, providing independently verifiable information based upon observation? Or is it subjective, depending upon the information elicited by the testing physician?
• What is the probability that the test will not detect the abnormality?
• What is the prevalence of the abnormality in the population?
• What is the normal range of test results?

The book is written in plain English and details more than 500 medical tests frequently encountered in SSA disability determinations. Real-life examples and explanatory drawings accompany many texts. Medical terms are explained as they occur in the text. Over 700 medical abbreviations are defined. Also provided are more than 80 normal laboratory test values and eight different treadmill stress test protocols.

Easy-to-use headings organize each test in the book for fast access to information.

• Type distinguishes between objective and subjective tests
• Purpose provides the indications for performing the test
• Technique helps you make sure that the test was performed properly
• Cross-References to SSA’s Blue Book Listing of Impairments save you time–the Blue Book is included in the Appendix
• Alternative Test Names confuse even physicians, so their inclusion here makes identification easy for everyone
• Can SSA Purchase? Invasiveness, expense and unavailability limit the tests the SSA will provide
• Interpretation discusses the meaning of normal and abnormal results
• Medical Terms are defined in the footnotes

REVISION 14 HIGHLIGHTS

This update of Dr. David Morton’s Social Security Disability Medical Tests updates the book and adds 20 new tests:

• 1.18.2, Osteoarthritis Biomarkers
• 2.1.3, AdenoPlus™ Dry Eye Test
• 2.4.1, Corneal Confocal Microscopy (CCM)
• 2.12.2, Ocular Disease Surface Index (OSDI^©)
• 2.29.2, TearLab Osmolarity System
• 2.29.3, Tear Breakup Time
• 5.27.1, Magnetic Resonance Enterography
• 9.22.1, Incretins
• 10.6.1, Harmony Prenatal Test
• 10.9.1, Kisspeptin
• 11.1.4, Balance Error Scoring System (BESS)
• 11.8.1, CytoScan® Dx Assay
• 11.14.5, Froment’s Sign
• 11.16.2, Kynurenic Acid (KYNA)
• 11.28.1, Oppenheim Test
• 11.32.1, Standard Assessment of Concussion (SAC)
• 13.4.9, Colon Cancer Blood Test
• 13.7.2, 4Kscore® Test
• 13.9.8, MicroRNA Blood Tests for Lung Cancer
• 12.32.1, IdentRA

With this new edition, Social Security Disability Medical Tests will continue to help you critically examine the application of test results to your firm’s disability claims:

— What is the normal range of test results?

— Is the test objective, providing independently verifiable information based upon observation?

— Or is subjective, depending upon the information elicited by the testing physician?

— What is the probability that the test will detect the abnormality?

— What is the prevalence of the abnormality in the population?

— What are the relevant Social Security medical listings?

ABBREVIATED TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume I
Introduction
1. Musculoskeletal Tests
2. Special Senses and Speech
3. Respiratory System Tests
4. Cardiovascular Tests
5. Digestive System and Abdominal Tests
6. Genito-Urinary Tests
7. Hemic and Lymphatic Tests

Volume II
8. Skin Tests
9. Endocrine and Obesity Tests
10. Obstetrics and Gynecology Tests
11. Neurological Tests
12. Immune System, Serology and Related Tests
13. Cancer and Related Tests

Appendices
Appendix 1 – Test Normal Values
Appendix 2 – Medical Abbreviations
Appendix 3 – Treadmill Stress Test Protocols
Appendix 4 – SSA’s Listing of Impairments
Appendix 5 – National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS)
Appendix 6 – Blood Pressures for Boys and Girls

Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David A. Morton has degrees in both psychology (B.A.) and medicine (M.D.). For 14 years he was a consultant for Disability Determination for Social Security Administration in Arkansas, and was the Chief Medical Consultant during the last 8 years of that time. In his capacity of Chief Medical Consultant he hired, trained, supervised and evaluated the work of both medical doctors (M.D.’s), and clinical psychologists (Ph.D.’s) in the medical determination of mental disability claims. He also supervised medical disability determinations of physical disorders and personally made more than 50,000 determinations of both physical and mental disorders in both adults and children in every specialty of medicine pertaining to disability. Since 1983, Dr. Morton has authored several books on Social Security disability used by attorneys and the general public.