Issue paper: eleventh revision of the international classification of diseases

Abstract

The eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) is a system of medical coding created by the World Health Organization (WHO) for reporting and defining diseases, disorders, injuries and other health related conditions. Particularly for this eleventh revision, the environment in which it is being prepared is completely different from that of the tenth revision in the 1980s. For mortality, multiple cause of-death coding software has been updated and expanded, and promotes consistent application of underlying cause-of-death rules. For morbidity, as well as allowing data collection for reporting disease trends and hospital utilization, the codes are being increasingly used for case mix and reimbursement purposes. Technology and data handling tools are dramatically different, as are the expectations of users to extract data from electronic health records.