Today, medical rehabilitation of patients with rheumatic diseases is based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). In addition to the biomedical view, rehabilitation includes the individuals' activities and participation in society; the ICF integrates personal and environmental factors. Disability due to rheumatic disease results from the health condition itself and its structural and functional limitations as well as individual personal and environmental contextual factors. Two case reports--a patient with early rheumatoid arthritis and a patient with advanced ankylosing spondylitis--illustrate interdisciplinary treatment in medical rehabilitation that is based on the ICF.