Many of us who came of age in the ’80s fondly recall the classic, sci-fi, teen movie “Back To The Future.” In the film, Marty McFly, with help from his mad scientist friend Doc Brown, travels in a modified DeLorean car back in time from 1985 to 1955. There, he meets his future parents as teens and finds that he must get them to meet and fall in love, or he will cease to be. In happy-ending fashion, Marty succeeds in bringing his parents-to-be together and returns to the year 1985.

Perhaps you’re wondering what a popular movie from the VHS era has to do with a scholarly article on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s seminal case of Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Derry Area School District), 161 A.3d 827 (Pa. 2017) (Protz II). Trust me, this is not a movie review. It is, however, a review of past legal principles about impairment rating evaluations (IREs) that were developed by Pennsylvania’s appellate courts pre-Protz II that will be relied on more frequently in a future, post-Protz II world. Recently, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court signaled that it was time to go “Back to The Future” in the case of Sicilia v. API Roofers Advantage Program (Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board), No. 747 C.D. 2021, filed June 7, by Senior Judge Bonnie Leadbetter. In the opinion, the court, citing the pre-Protz II Supreme Court decision of Duffey v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Trola-Dyne), 152 A.3d 984 (Pa. 2017), held that in performing an IRE, an examining physician has the discretion to determine what diagnoses are “due to” the compensable injury.

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