Rehabilitation of the injured worker.

The Workers' Compensation Board is mostly involved in secondary and tertiary prevention of work-related accidents and disease. Through its new Medical Rehabilitation Strategy, the board will help to ensure that optimal health care programs are available to injured workers. For workers who are left with restricted function, even after the best possible health care, vocational rehabilitation or tertiary prevention programs are offered. In both phases the primary care physician has a key function and must be familiar with the "state of the art" treatment of so-called minor trauma and activity-related disorders. Physicians also must recognize the importance of providing a reasonable prognosis as early as possible because it will drive the vocational rehabilitation planning process.