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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT
ADVISORY PANEL QUARTERLY MEETING
JUNE 10, 2009
HYATT REGENCY - McCORMICK PLACE
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
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DR. MARY BARROS-BAILEY
INTERIM CHAIR
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1 M E M B E R S
2 MARY BARROS-BAILEY, Ph.D., INTERIM CHAIR
3 GUNNAR ANDERSSON, M.D.
4 ROBERT T. FRASER, M.D.
5 SHANAN GWALTNEY GIBSON, Ph.D.
6 THOMAS A. HARDY, J.D.
7 SYLVIA E. KARMAN
8 DEBORAH E. LECHNER
9 DAVID J. SCHRETLEN, M.D.
10 NANCY G. SHOR, J.D.
11 MARK A. WILSON, Ph.D.
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13 C O N T E N T S
14 ITEM:
15 ---------------------------------------------------
16 Welcome, Overview of Agenda 4
17 National Association of Disability
Examiners
18 Georgina B. Huskey, President 14
19 National Council of Disability
Determination Directors
20 Trudy Lyon-Hart, Secretary 43
21 Clinical Inference in Assessment
of MRFC Capacity
22 David A. Schretlen, Ph.D. 80
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1 C O N T E N T S (CON'T)
2 ITEM:
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4 User Needs Subcommittee Chair Report 135
5 Physical Demands Subcommittee Chair Report 151
6 Public Comment 193
7 Mental/Cognitive Subcommittee Chair Report 225
8 Panel Discussion and Deliberation 247
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10
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21
22
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 MS. TIDWELL-PETERS: My name is Debra
3 Tidwell-Peters. I'm the Designated Federal Officer
4 for the Occupational Information Development
5 Advisory Panel. And we will welcome you to the
6 third quarterly meeting. I'm going to turn the
7 meeting over to the interim chair, Dr. Mary
8 Barros-Bailey. Mary.
9 DR. BARROS-BAILEY: Good morning,
10 everybody. I would like to welcome you all. This
11 is our third meeting since February, and we are on
12 track now. We are at our third quarterly meeting in
13 two quarters. So welcome, everybody. It's hard to
14 believe that we have only been at this for three and
15 a half months, because there is a lot of work that's
16 been done. I want to, as we launch this meeting,
17 thank everybody for all your hard work.
18 I would also like to welcome Paul Krieglig
19 (phonetic), the Community Management Officer for
20 Social Security Administration who is sitting in the
21 back. And this Panel meeting we also would like to
22 welcome Associate Commissioner of Office Program
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1 Development and Research, Richard Balkus. Richard
2 is going to be swearing in Dr. Gunnar Andersson to
3 the Panel this morning. So welcome.
4 MR. BALKUS: Good morning. At the
5 inaugural meeting the Commissioner swore in panel
6 members. Before the meeting ended I had the
7 privilege of swearing in Dr. Barros-Bailey, our
8 interim chair to the Advisory Panel. This morning I
9 have the honor to swear in Dr. Gunnar Andersson as
10 our 12th member of the Advisory Panel.
11 So Dr. Andersson, I would ask you to raise
12 your right hand and repeat after me.
13 (Whereupon, Dr. Gunnar Andersson was
14 sworn in.)
15 MR. BALKUS: Congratulations. Thank you.
16 DR. BARROS-BAILEY: Thank you, Richard.
17 Dr. Andersson, Gunnar, welcome, and we're
18 delighted to have you with us today. Would you just
19 take a few minutes and tell us about your background
20 and work. And just -- the mikes just need a slight
21 tap.
22 DR. ANDERSSON: I am an orthopedic
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1 surgeon. I was trained in Sweden. I practice at
2 Rush University Medical Center here in Chicago,
3 Illinois. I specialize in spine. I have been
4 interested in the effect of work on the
5 musculoskeletal system for almost 40 years. I am
6 publishing widely on issues related to the influence
7 of lifting, twisting, other types of activities on
8 the spine; sitting, standing. Published textbooks
9 on occupational biomechanics.
10 DR. BARROS-BAILEY: Thank you. And as we
11 welcome a new member to the Panel, we would also
12 like to inform you and the audience of the
13 resignation of Mr. James Woods. We wish Jim all the
14 best in his future endeavors.
15 At this point we're going to go ahead and
16 review the agenda for the day. And in order to
17 assure completion of our September assignment, our
18 daunting task, this meeting of the Panel will
19 primarily provide us with the opportunity to discuss
20 and deliberate the beginning stages of each
21 subcommittee's recommendation. We will also hear
22 from two member organizations, and look forward to
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1 their insight and advice that they can provide us.
2 The Chair of the Mental Cognitive
3 Subcommittee will be providing a presentation,
4 Drawing Inferences; and later this afternoon from
5 2:30 to 3:30 we're going to have the opportunity to
6 have public comment. Tomorrow we will continue with
7 the deliberation and planning of future meetings,
8 and then adjourn at noon. For those listening on
9 the phone, I'm going to announce breaks so that you
10 are aware of when we are not in session and when we
11 are planning on coming back.
12 Since April the Panel has been very, very
13 busy identifying information that will feed into the
14 work of each subcommittee; and ultimately, into our
15 final recommendations in September. And because
16 there are new members in the audience, and those
17 listening in might have been involved in previous
18 meetings, I would like to draw your attention to the
19 Panel's charter and to our mission. And we iterate
20 that it is to provide independent advice and
21 recommendations to Commissioner Astrue and the
22 Social Security Administration as it -- on its plans
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1 and activities to replace the Dictionary of
2 Occupational Titles in the Social Security
3 Administration's disability determination process.
4 The recommendations that are due in
5 September will outline the type of occupational
6 information that the Social Security Administration
7 should collect, as well as recommendations on the
8 type of classification system that the Agency should
9 use.
10 The OIDAP is the second stage in terms of
11 a larger project that considers the use of
12 occupational information. And I will have the
13 project director, Sylvia Karman say a couple words
14 about that project. Sylvia.
15 MS. KARMAN: Good morning, everyone.
16 Thank you, Mary.
17 One of the things that we think we would
18 want to do, especially since new individuals join us
19 by phone and in the -- in the audience every time we
20 have a meeting, is to just go over a little bit
21 about what our projects entails. We have a number
22 of efforts underway of which the Panel is one large
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1 feature of that, and we are, you know, looking at
2 replacing the use of the Dictionary of Occupational
3 Titles in our program and creating something that is
4 tailored for SSA's use and SSA's needs.
5 Right now we have something where we're
6 looking at short-term solutions as well as long
7 term. The Panel is -- is convened, has been
8 established to help the Agency assess how it should
9 be moving forward with regard to the long-term
10 efforts. So -- and they are largely research and
11 development oriented.
12 When the Agency gets to the point in the
13 process where we have begun to collect data and are
14 able to analyze it, then the Agency will be in a
15 position to make policy determinations about what
16 might need to change, if anything needs to change
17 with the policy. But the Panel will not be working
18 on policy issues per se, although, what the Panel
19 may be recommending and what our project team is
20 working on would certainly, we're hoping, be helpful
21 in informing possible policy development. But
22 anyway, it is just something we would like to make
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1 clear to people that we not here to develop policy.
2 One of the things that I think is also
3 helpful is if I could call your attention to the
4 road map, which is behind section one for those of
5 you who have the materials. And first -- second red
6 divider is the road map for Developing an
7 Occupational Information System for Social Security
8 Administration. This is basically, you know, an
9 outline that shows what we're thinking the project
10 would entail in terms of activities, you know, how
11 the Panel is involved with the Agency. At what
12 point the Panel would be involved with the Agency.
13 What the Agency is doing, and who is doing what
14 when.
15 So, for example, if we look under part one
16 we will see right now we're developing a content
17 model. We're also developing a classification
18 system -- at least an initial one -- to get us
19 started.
20 So SSA will -- you know, has proposed
21 plans in working papers and presented them to the
22 Panel with regard to developing a content model,
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1 with regard to developing an initial classification
2 system. And then, of course, as we all know, the
3 Panel will be developing recommendations, has been
4 working in several subcommittees to pull that
5 together. Then the staff will take that
6 information -- once the Panel has provided the
7 recommendations to the commissioner, SSA will then
8 determine how to move forward. And as we do that,
9 staff will be developing content model
10 classification system instruments as needed, and
11 then we will be coming back to the Panel, back
12 through SSA management.
13 So it's an iterative process whereby the
14 Panel will be involved at every step as well as, you
15 know, working closely with our internal SSA
16 workgroup. So it's just a way of people being able
17 to see where we're headed.
18 Also, we have provided an appendix to that
19 road map that shows all of the meetings that we have
20 held, and we're going to be also posting our
21 background papers, working papers all of that
22 material so that people can see what we have
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1 provided to the Panel, and the materials that we've
2 developed to outline where we're going to be moving
3 next. So I think that's -- that's all I have for
4 now, Mary.
5 DR. BARROS-BAILEY: Thank you, Sylvia.
6 If you notice the road map has been
7 updated from the first couple times we've seen it.
8 It is a really important document that has helped us
9 put together a time line, as we will be discussing
10 later today.
11 So thank you, Sylvia, for your work on
12 that.
13 At this time -- well, at the April meeting
14 we kind of expanded the role of the User Needs
15 Subcommittee to include relations. And the Panel --
16 the creation of this subcommittee was to be able to
17 not only look at the needs, but also to reach out to
18 our stakeholders.
19 One of the first efforts has been to
20 identify organizations who can provide us with
21 useful input and information in terms of seasoned
22 guidance about the current use of the DOT, and to
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1 assist in identification of information currently
2 used that is incomplete or non-existent, but it's
3 vital in terms of the day-to-day operations -- in
4 terms of the day to day operations of the Social
5 Security disabilities -- Disability Associations,
6 disability determination process.
7 So I would like to introduce Georgina
8 Huskey. She is the president of the National
9 Association of Disability Examiners who will be
10 presenting to us this morning. As a member of NADE
11 since 1992, Georgina has been involved with the Los
12 Angeles chapter in several capacities and worked in
13 many national committees, most notably being honored
14 as Chair of the Litigation Monitoring Committee and
15 the recipient of the Regional Supervisor's award in
16 2005.
17 She served as the Pacific Region President
18 for three years, and she was the Pacific Regional
19 Director for four years. During the 25 year tenure