News: The WHO prepares for the release of ICD-11
The World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing for the official release of the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD-11, in June, JustCoding reported.
Beginning in April 2007, the WHO and its member countries launched a revision process to make structural changes to ICD-10, which was viewed as outdated and incompatible with electronic health applications, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
In 2015, a Joint Task Force (JTF) on the ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics was formed to address serious deficiencies with ICD-10 and create a set of standards for ICD-11. The review and work on individual chapters is ongoing, according to JustCoding.
The goals of the JTF are to ensure that ICD-11 will function in an electronic environment, establish a multi-purpose and coherent classification, and serve as a reference standard for scientific comparability. According to the WHO, ICD-11 will be compatible with electronic health applications and information systems, and free to download in several different languages for personal use.
Coders will have to adjust to the way that definitions, signs and symptoms, and other content is organized in ICD-11. According to the NCHS, unlike ICD-10 codes, ICD-11 codes will have four, rather than three characters, before the decimal point, according to JustCoding. Additionally, codes will always have a letter in the second position to distinguish them from ICD-10.
According to the NCHS, ICD-11 will also have seven new chapters:
- Chapter 3: Diseases of the Blood and Blood-forming Organs
- Chapter 4: Disorders of the Immune System
- Chapter 6: Conditions related to Sexual Health
- Chapter 8: Sleep-Wake Disorders
- Chapter 26: Traditional Medicine
- Chapter 27: Supplemental V Codes
- Chapter 28: Supplemental Extension codes
WHO invites experts and stakeholders to participate in the ICD revision by registering for an account on the ICD-11 online platform. After creating an account, participants can make comments, make proposals to change ICD categories, propose definitions of diseases, participate in field testing, and contribute to language translations.
Despite ICD-11 nearing a draft release, it is unlikely to supplant ICD-10-CM in the United States in the near future. The WHO originally accepted ICD-10 for use in 1990, but it took decades for the U.S. to create and implement its modified version in 2015.
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in JustCoding. To read about the ICD-10 implementation and its effects on CDI, click here.