Des Moines University

Creating a common language on human function from DMU Magazine, winter 2009 Des Moines University, Des Moines, Iowa

Reuben Escorpizo, a student in DMU's postprofessional doctor of physical therapy program, got an extra incentive to complete his final capstone project by the end of 2008 – an invitation to lead the World Health Organization's three-year project to classify and measure human functioning and health in work and rehabilitation.

The project took Escorpizo and his fiancée, Brittany Norton, from sunny Florida late November to Swiss Paraplegic Research in Nottwil, Switzerland. There, he's building a network of international partners to identify the most critical factors and specific measurements for each, called an International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) core set, on getting people back to work. “ICF provides a universal language that people of all professions all over the world can use,” Escorpizo says. “It's a body of knowledge for how you would define and measure human function regardless of the culture or environment.”

The concept of ICF core sets was endorsed by all 191 WHO member states in 2001 as the international standard to describe and measure health and disability at individual and population levels. Since then, experts have been working to develop core sets for various chronic conditions and diseases, from spinal cord injury and stroke to breast cancer, depression and sleep disorders.

Because the sets measure a person's functionality in a given context, they are important to health care providers, researchers, employers, health insurance companies and policymakers. The core sets also foster research on restoring and maintaining function that could help “minimize disability of people with health conditions throughout the world,” says Dr. Alarcos Cieza, leader of a working group at the ICF Research Branch of WHO and the Institute for Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Munich, Germany.

Cieza met Escorpizo through his collaborations as a fellow of the international network Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials, or OMERACT. She invited Escorpizo to join the ICF work/rehabilitiation core set project. “He knows how to carry out studies, how to publish papers, how to collaborate with international partners and how to motivate other team members,” she says. “He also brings very international perspectives to the project.”

Escorpizo earned his bachelor's degree in the Philippines and his master's in occupational biomechanics in Canada. A clinician and physical therapist at Leesburg, Fla., Regional Medical Center prior to his move to Switzerland, he enrolled in DMU's PPDPT program because of its clinical aspects and online convenience.

“Sometimes there can be a disconnect between clinical practice and research,” he says. “The program gave me tons of clinical ideas; now I'm going back to research.”

His work with WHO on the ICF core set also fits his passion for his profession. “As a physical therapist, I'm working to bring people back to their prior level of functioning,” he notes. “That's inspiring.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
View ALL stories.