The International Classification of Diseases [ICD 11] World Health Organization and ICD 11

The International Classification of Diseases [ICD 11] World Health Organization and ICD 11

The World Health Organization (WHO) Eleventh Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) has now come into effect, with the latest update going online since Jan 2022.

The ICD provides a common language that allows health professionals to share standardized information across the world. It is the foundation for identifying health trends and statistics worldwide, containing around 17 000 unique codes for injuries, diseases and causes of death, underpinned by more than 120 000 codable terms. By using code combinations, more than 1.6 million clinical situations can now be coded.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) has long been the main basis for comparability of statistics on causes of mortality and morbidity between places and over time. Clinical terms coded with ICD are the main basis for health recording and statistics on disease in primary, secondary and tertiary care, as well as on cause of death certificates. These data and statistics support payment systems, service planning, administration of quality and safety, and health services research. Diagnostic guidance linked to categories of ICD also standardizes data collection and enables large scale research.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) provides a common language that allows health professionals to share standardized information across the world. All Member States are encouraged to follow their commitment to move on to ICD-11 documented with their approval of ICD-11 at the 72nd meeting of the World Health Assembly in 2019, and use the most current version of ICD for recording and reporting mortality and morbidity statistics both nationally and internationally.

As a classification and terminology ICD-11:

a)allows the systematic recording, analysis, interpretation and comparison of mortality and morbidity data collected in different countries or regions and at different times and

b) ensures semantic interoperability and reusability of recorded data for the different use cases beyond mere health statistics, including decision support, resource allocation, reimbursement, guidelines and more

ICD-11 Highlights

- Legally mandated health data standard (WHO Constitution and
Nomenclature Regulations).

- In effect from January 2022.

- Conceptual framework independent of language and culture.

- Integration of terminology and classification.

- End-to-end digital solution (API, tools, online and offline).

- Up-to-date scientific knowledge.

- Comparable statistics and semantic interoperability - for 150 years.

- ICD-11 is accessible to everybody.

- ICD-11 is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO license.

- ICD-11 enables, for the first time, the counting of traditional medicine services and encounters.

- The 11th revision is more extensive and has greater implications for what can be done with the ICD, and how, than any revision since the 6th, in 1948

- 35 countries are using ICD-11.

- Current implemented uses of ICD-11 include causes of death, primary care, cancer registration, patient safety, dermatology, pain documentation, allergology, reimbursement, clinical documentation, data dictionaries for WHO guidelines*, digital documentation of COVID-19 vaccination status and test results, and more.


- Terminology coding with the coding tool and API.

- Rare diseases coding.

- Support for perinatal and maternal coding.

- 900 proposals were processed based on input from early adopters, translators, scientists, clinicians and partners.

- Grade and stage coding for cancers.

- Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Requirements for mental health.

In 2022, reporting of mortality data according to ICD-11-MMS will commence, with a transition period of at least five years. The nature, timing, and complexity of implementation for morbidity coding will vary from place to place. In general, the transition will be most complex in places in which ICD is used widely, in multiple systems, and underlies processes such as activity-based funding.