Examining the Use of Biomarkers in Establishing the Presence and Severity of Impairments

As part of the overall disability determination process, the Social Security Administration uses a step-by-step approach to understand how severe an individual's condition is and whether it meets program criteria for disability. The use of various types of biomarkers has been suggested as a way to strengthen the amount and quality of objective evidence available to the review process. At the request of the Social Security Administration, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Board on Health Care Services organized a virtual workshop on July 21, 2020, titled The State of the Science of the Use of Biomarkers to Establish the Presence and Severity of Impairments. Workshop discussions focused on the current and potential uses for biomarkers; explored legal and ethical implications associated with biomarker use in clinical decision making; and considered the possible uses of nongenetic biomarkers as tools for the diagnosis or prognosis of the severity of specific physical and mental impairments. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.