WHO announces ICD-11 now in effect
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The 11th revision of WHO’s ICD has come into effect, according to the organization. For the first time, the disease catalog is entirely digital and in a user-friendly format with multilingual capabilities, WHO said.
“International classification of diseases is the cornerstone of a robust health information system,” Samira Asma, MSc, the assistant director-general for Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact at WHO, said in the release.
In the ICD-11, WHO said that it improved the clarity of terms for the general public, updated diagnostic recommendations for mental health conditions and included digital documentation of COVID-19 vaccination certificates and test results.
Also, the organization added gaming disorder to its section on addictive disorders in addition to new chapters on traditional medicine and sexual health. WHO recommended that clinicians diagnose gaming disorder only if symptoms persist for at least 1 year. However, this may be shortened for certain patients who meet all the diagnostic requirements or show severe symptoms, Healio previously reported.
WHO member states are expected to implement ICD-11 for reporting death and disease statistics. The 11th revision was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2019. Following the assembly, the American Academy of Professional Coders projected that the U.S. would adopt the update as early as 2025.
“A key principle in this revision was to simplify the coding and provide users with all necessary electronic tooling — this will allow health care professionals to more easily and completely record conditions,” Robert Jakob, MD, the team lead of Classifications, Terminologies and Standards at WHO, said in the release.
In addition to tracking statistics, the ICD is used by health insurers during reimbursement decisions, by national health program managers, data collection specialists and others involved in global health and health resource allocation, according to WHO. Specifically, the ICD-11 includes about 17,000 unique codes for injuries, diseases and causes of death that are represented by more than 120,000 codable terms. With the catalog, more than 1.6 million clinical situations can be coded.
References:
Frequently asked questions. https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions. Accessed Feb. 11, 2022.
US gets the ball rolling on ICD-11. https://www.aapc.com/blog/48275-us-gets-the-ball-rolling-on-icd-11/. Published Aug. 16, 2019. Accessed Feb. 11, 2022.
WHO’s new International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) comes into effect. https://www.who.int/news/item/11-02-2022-who-s-new-international-classification-of-diseases-(icd-11)-comes-into-effect. Published Feb. 11, 2022. Accessed Feb. 11, 2022.