3282                                   LAWS OF MARYLAND                                Ch. 521

vested with authority to hear and determine any hearing,
trial, inquiry or investigation which the Commission is
authorized to hold or undertake; THE COMMISSION IS
AUTHORIZED EFFECTIVE JUNE 1, 1983, TO HEAR AND DETERMINE ANY
CASE INVOLVING AN OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE CLAIM; and any one of
such members can preside alone at any such hearing, trial,
inquiry and investigation, and every order and determination
made by any one member shall be deemed to be the order or
determination of the Commission. The chairman shall sit on
the trial of cases except to the extent that it is
necessary for said chairman to devote time to the adequate
and efficient performance of his administrative and
executive functions.

22.

(c) Where an occupational disease is aggravated by
any other disease or infirmity, not itself compensable, or
where disability or death from any other cause, not itself
compensable, is aggravated, prolonged, accelerated or in
anywise contributed to by an occupational disease, the
percentage of such contribution to be determined by the
[medical board, as hereinafter created] WORKMEN'S
COMPENSATION COMMISSION, the compensation payable shall be
reduced and limited to such proportion only of the
compensation that would be payable if the occupational
disease were the sole cause of the disability or death as
such occupational disease, as a causative factor, bears to
all the causes of such disability or death, such reduction
in compensation to be effected by reducing the number of
weekly or monthly payments or the amount of such payments,
as under the circumstances of the particular case may be for
the best interest of the claimant or claimants.

[27.

(a) There shall be a medical board consisting of three
members who shall be licensed physicians in good
professional standing, two of whom shall have had at least
five (5) years' practice in the diagnosis, treatment and
care of industrial diseases, and one of whom shall be
especially trained in roentgenology, and who shall have had
at least five (5) years' practice and experience. They
shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate from a list of nominees to be
submitted by the deans of the medical departments of the
University of Maryland and of the Johns Hopkins University,
and by the council of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of
Maryland, each of these three agencies to submit a list of
at least three persons, two of whom shall be especially
experienced in occupational diseases, and one of whom shall
be an experienced roentgenologist. One of said members
shall be designated as chairman of the medical board by the
Governor. The term of office of a member of such board
shall be six (6) years, except that the first appointments