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Health care measuring range of motion of an injured employee's arm

What is a designated doctor?

A designated doctor (DD) is a doctor or health care provider selected and trained by DWC to resolve questions about an injured employee's medical condition; or a dispute about a work-related injury or illness.
The injured employee, the employee's representative, or insurance carrier, or DWC can request a DD exam. DWC decides if a DD should be appointed to conduct the exam. View video.

Narrative report templates

Narrative reports by exam type | Watch the video 

Designated doctor program

Become a designated doctor or renew certification

You must take the required training, pass the required test (on 5/13/13 or after) and apply. Renewal requires attending required training and reapplying every two years.

Designated doctors must subscribe to, own or have access to the following required guidelines:

  • Official Disability Guidelines (ODG) or call 800-488-5548. 
  • AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, 4th Edition.
    • Online AMA Guides (4th – 6th included, use 4th edition only).
    • Printed AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment 4th Edition is not sold by the AMA Guides, you may find other options to purchase online.

Steps to success - a great must read for new DDs!

Training

Register for training: DD training calendar.

Training materials:

Supplemental information packet - Includes DD Program contact information, disqualifying associations, DWC acronyms, and more.

Lung disease and pulmonary function tests




Designated doctor conducting an exam

News and designated doctor program updates

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Changes in qualifications for traumatic brain injury exams

News archive

Narrative report templates

DWC developed report templates for designated doctors (DDs). These templates provide a standardized approach to organizing the narrative that will assist the DD in meeting the narrative report requirements. While these templates are not required, DWC strongly encourages their use (click template to download).


TXCOMP appointment features

Doctors and their administrators must use TXCOMP to:

  • accept and manage designated doctor appointments, and
  • file required reports online.

DD TXCOMP implementation memo

Slideshow TXCOMP appointment features for DDs and RMEs training 

Tips to successfully upload your reports in TXCOMP:

  • Files format must be one of the following:
    • Microsoft Word (.doc and .docx),
    • Microsoft Excel (.xls and .xlsx),
    • Read-Only Portable Document Format (.pdf), or
    • Tagged Image Format (.tif and .tiff). 


  • Files size must be less than 10MB.
  • File name must be less than 100 characters.
  • When uploading DWC Form-069 and the narrative both file names together must be less than 100 characters.

 DWC Form-069 and narrative options *DWC069 Choose File button | No file chosen *Narrative Choose File button | No file chosen

  • These special characters are not allowed in the file name: <  >  :  “  /  \  |  ?  *  ,  ;  -

Note: Compressed or "zipped" files are not accepted.

For more information, contact: DesDoc_Education@tdi.texas.gov

Last updated: 2/27/2026