There has been considerable progress in functional assessment and functional outcome analysis with evolution from use of the Barthel index to the functional independence measure. Aggregation of large numbers of patients in various disability categories (stroke in this case) undergoing medical rehabilitation enables statistical analysis of predictive measures that may prove useful for predicting more accurately those patients likely to benefit from rehabilitation intervention, analyzing program effectiveness and efficiency, and serving as a basis for rationally allocating limited (and expensive) rehabilitation resources in an era of cost containment and likely capitated reimbursement systems.