Occupational therapy may be making a major breakthrough in its effort to educate other health care professionals about OT's role and methodology in treating work-related disorders.

In its 2008 revision of Occupational Medicine Practice Guidelines (OMPG), the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) lists occupational therapy apart from PT for the first time, and states that OTs "are trained to recognize both psychological and physical issues that may influence the treatment of back pain."

The March 3 edition of the Work and Industry SIS Newsletter also notes that, because of AOTA's participation in the three-year update of the guidelines, ACOEM has "included a greater emphasis on activity-based, cognitive-behavioral and occupational approaches, in addition to references to ADL and environmental challenges."

The OMPG is a best-practice tool for physicians and others working in the field of work-related medicine and is used by physiatrists, general-practice physicians, orthopedic specialists, psychologists, occupational nurses, PTs, OTs and other practitioners there.

First published in 1997 and revised in 2004, the OMPG is considered the gold-standard guide in the treatment of work-related illness and injury.

Because research has shown that most workplace injuries can be resolved in 90 days, the OMPG has focused its evidence-based protocols on making that happen.

With the advent of transitional work programs in many places, getting people back to work and letting them finish their recovery there with adaptations and accommodations is becoming much more common in the industry. This trend, of course, puts occupation-based treatment at the forefront.

Chapters in the OMPG upon which occupational therapists commented include those on clinical conditions of the elbow, lower-back disorders and treatment of chronic pain. AOTA has recently published its own evidence-based guidelines for occupational therapy practice in work-related elbow and lower-back injuries at www.aota.org/Educate/Research/CATsandCAPs/WC.aspx. People who had worked on those guidelines and the literature reviews upon which they were founded reviewed the OMPG chapters.

AOTA staff and volunteers also participated in reviewing the OMPG chapter on chronic pain.

E.J. Brown is ADVANCE editor.