Breaking barriers: holistic assessment of ability to work in patients with sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis, a relatively uncommon disease, is rarely encountered by disability assessors, leading to a knowledge gap regarding its impact. Patients frequently express dissatisfaction with work capacity assessments, which often do not include input from sarcoidosis experts and tend to focus narrowly on lung function tests. In addition to the highly variable spectrum of organ-related disabilities, functional impairments, including fatigue, reduced exercise capacity, and cognitive impairment, cause complex disruptions across crucial life domains such as ability to work. Difficulties arise when assessing such elusive manifestations that do not have straightforward evaluation and quantitative tests. This Comment, informed primarily by patients with first-hand experience worldwide, patient advocate groups, clinicians, and the literature, offers a better understanding of the impact of sarcoidosis on the ability to work, and a more realistic approach to the quantification of disease burden.