Doctors and other health professionals play a major role in ensuring that their patients are aware of the provisions of the Social Security Disability Program. If you are involved directly in patient care, you probably have received requests from a State disability agency (usually called the "Disability Determination Services") to submit medical information on behalf of some of your patients. You are the key to an effective disability program, whose goal is to award benefits promptly and accurately to people who meet the definition of disability under Social Security. We hope the information contained in this site provides you with a general understanding of how our program works. We particularly want you to understand how we rely on you, the health professional, for the medical evidence that is the backbone of our disability evaluation process.