20 Years of ICF-International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Uses and Applications around the World.

The International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) was approved in 2001 and, since then, several studies reported the increased interest about its use in different sectors. A recent overview that summarizes its applications is lacking. This study aims to provide an updated overview about 20 years of ICF application through an international online questionnaire, developed by the byline authors, and sent to each World Health Organization Collaborating Centers of the Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC CCs). Data was collected during October 2020 and December 2021 and descriptive content analyses were used to report main results. Results show how, in most of the respondent countries represented by WHO-FIC CCs, ICF was mainly used in clinical practice, policy development and social policy, and in education areas. Despite its applications in different sectors, ICF use is not mandatory in most countries but, where used, it provides a biopsychosocial framework for policy development in health, functioning and disability. The study provides information about the needs related to ICF applications, that can be useful to organize targeted intervention plans. Furthermore, this survey methodology can be re-proposed periodically to monitor the use of the ICF in the future.

Mapping of the GEVA Items to the ICF: Preliminary Results Based on the Content of a Tool Guide Used to Assess the Needs of Persons With Disabilities in France.

The aim of this research is two-fold. Firstly, mapping the GEVA items on to the ICF will allow identifying those items that are covered by the ICF and assist in improving the data collection process. Secondly this work will provide a first exploration of the items that are not covered by the ICF and that could lead to potential proposals for updating the ICF. The preliminary results show that the items of the GEVA 2008 general version are partly covered by the ICF 2017 Browser version categories. In every section of the GEVA, some of the items might be coded with ICF codes coming from the following ICF components: Body functions, Activities and Participation, Environmental factors, Personal factors. The items of the section 6 remains those mostly covered by the ICF. Throughout the GEVA, many environmental factors are documented. Although further analysis is needed to better inform the use of qualifiers (performance, capacity, satisfaction) together with the activities and the environmental factors, the identified ICF codes could assist in improving the data collection process. Finally, some items might be discussed to become potential ICF updates proposals.

Avoiding the Banality of Evil in Times of COVID-19: Thinking Differently with a Biopsychosocial Perspective for Future Health and Social Policies Development.

The COVID-19 pandemic provides the opportunity to re-think health policies and health systems approaches by the adoption of a biopsychosocial perspective, thus acting on environmental factors so as to increase facilitators and diminish barriers. Specifically, vulnerable people should not face discrimination because of their vulnerability in the allocation of care or life-sustaining treatments. Adoption of biopsychosocial model helps to identify key elements where to act to diminish effects of the pandemics. The pandemic showed us that barriers in health care organization affect mostly those that are vulnerable and can suffer discrimination not because of severity of diseases but just because of their vulnerability, be this age or disability and this can be avoided by biopsychosocial planning in health and social policies. It is possible to avoid the banality of evil, intended as lack of thinking on what we do when we do, by using the emergence of the emergency of COVID-19 as a Trojan horse to achieve some of the sustainable development goals such as universal health coverage and equity in access, thus acting on environmental factors is the key for global health improvement.

Temporal and spatial patterns of the clinical surveillance of BSE in France, analysed from January 1991 to May 2002 through a vigilance index.

Between 1991 and mid 2000, the surveillance of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in France was based solely on clinical surveillance through a Mandatory Reporting System. Since 2000, the implementation of active surveillance programmes using rapid tests, as a complementary tool targeted at dead and slaughtered cattle has shown that part of the BSE cases were not detected with the clinical surveillance. In order to obtain a better knowledge of the strength of the clinical surveillance, we analysed a vigilance index defined as the ratio of negative clinical suspicions to the cattle population in the region and period of interest. The temporal analysis of the vigilance index showed that it did not vary much between 1991 and 1999, increased sharply since 2000, and then decreased partly in 2001. The geographical analysis of the variations of the vigilance index was performed at the department level by comparing the observed number of negative clinical suspicions per department to the expected number, computed on the basis of the national average index and standardised on the production type of the cattle - dairy versus beef suckling cattle. As assumed, the data followed a Poisson distribution. We observed a high geographical variation of the vigilance index: ten departments out of 91 presented a significantly higher vigilance index than the national one, and four a significantly lower vigilance index. The vigilance index showed that the clinical surveillance was heterogeneous during the past twelve years, both in time and geographic location, in a range of one to ten. So the apparent trend in the BSE epidemic during this period as well as the differences in the spatial incidence of BSE have to be analysed with caution.