To the physician the term "rehabilitation" has long connoted "the restoration of the handicapped to the fullest physical, mental, social, vocational and economic usefulness of which they are capable." In general usage, however, the term itself, during the past few years, has lost much of its significance, for it has been used to describe everything from correctional programs in modern penal institutions to the social and economic rebuilding of war devastated countries. With the developing emphasis placed on the processes of restoring handicapped workers, a new term has arisen which describes such processes more aptly and with more virility. That term is "the third phase of medical care."
The modern concept of this third phase of medicine, which takes the patient from the bed to the job, springs both directly and indirectly from the war. The rehabilitation programs of the military services and the Veterans Administration demonstrated that planned, integrated