(a) It is particularly suited by its medical training to furnish a determination on medical issues. In effect, the determination has some close similarity to a medico-legal report, which usually sets out the history obtained, the symptoms complained of, the examination carried out, what that examination discloses and a view of the extent, nature and severity of the medical condition supported by the doctor's reasons for reaching that conclusion.
(b) In relation to many medical issues, there may be, and often is, a legitimate difference of medical opinion as to the nature, extent and severity of the injury.
(c) The panel's task is to determine from all the medical reports before it, its examination of the worker and its own experience, the conclusion as to which of those differing opinions it favours in the case before it.
(d) The expression of the conclusion, however, is made insufficient by the Act. The Act demands that the panel gives reasons. The law does not demand that the reasons should extend beyond those sufficient to enable the lay reader and, in some cases, the medical reader, to determine how the panel reached its decision.
(e) In these circumstances, one task for the panel is to determine which medical reports it accepts and which it does not. However, it is insufficient to simply make that statement.
(f) In concluding which medical reports to accept or reject, the panel may have regard to matters such as the sufficiency of the history given to the doctor providing each report by the worker; the extent to which, if at all, the doctor has examined the worker and what the doctor has ascertained from that examination; whether the examining doctor has overlooked some matter, which the panel has observed on its examination and which it considers to be relevant; and whether the views expressed by the doctor accord with a respected body of medical opinion. There may be other reasons for rejecting some medical reports. They should be stated.
(g) Insofar as the panel questions the worker, the determination should set out, albeit briefly, the nature of the questioning and the effect that the answers and the manner in which they were given impacted upon the panel's determination.
(h) Insofar as the panel examines the worker, it should record what is found on examination and what the panel derives from such findings perhaps, more particularly, in the light of the history and complaints made by the worker.
(i) From all this information, although much will be contained in writing what I have said, the panel should disclose its reasons upon which it bases its conclusions."