At the request of the SSA, the Institute of Medicine formed a committee which issued the report; Improving the Social Security Disability Decision Process, addressing the medical aspects of disability determination and recommending improvements. The committee recommended the SSA: 

• Investigate the reliability and validity of the Listings as a tool for identifying the truly disabled; 
• Incorporate condition-specific functional assessment tools in the Listings that demonstrate a strong
• correlation with work disability; 
• Strengthen the process for revising and updating the Listings; 
• Expand medical and functional expertise at the staff level; and, 
• Establish an external advisory committee system.

The committee concluded that a better mechanism than the Listings does not exist at this time, although it recommends that SSA monitor and support promising alternative approaches to disability assessment.