The Development, Evolution, and Modifications of ICD-10

Abstract

The threat to the comparability of international clinical morbidity is growing with the development of many country-specific ICD-10 versions. One solution to this threat is to develop a meta-database including all country-specific modifications to ensure more efficient use of people and resources, decrease omissions and errors but most importantly provide a platform for future ICD updates.

Epidemiology and cost of hospital care for Lyme borreliosis in Germany: Lessons from a health care utilization database analysis

“…As in some other countries, a modification of ICD-10 is used in Germany (Jetté et al, 2010). A system of hierarchical primary and secondary keys allows multiple coding in which the primary key stands for the underlying disease and the secondary key displays the clinical pattern of the disorder.…”

Use and Utility of Administrative Health Data for Stroke Research and Surveillance

“…It can vary between the principal reason for admission (eg, United States and Australia) or the condition with the highest resource use (eg, Canada). 3,8 For example, a patient is admitted for myocardial infarction and has a stroke post admission, leading to a prolonged hospitalization. In Canada, stroke becomes the main source of resource use and in the United States, myocardial infarction remains the principal reason for admission.…”

“…3 For example, the ICD-10-CA/Canadian Classification of Health Interventions is the Canadian adaptation for coding diagnoses and procedures, whereas the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM contain the American clinical modifications, which includes procedural codes, adapted by the US National Center for Health Statistics. The ICD-11 is expected to address some of the challenges of coding heterogeneity, as it will be implemented internationally as a single version, translated into multiple languages, digitalized for ongoing modifications, and will contain definitions to allow for standardized application.…”

“…Comparing international data is also challenging. 3 In this review, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of administrative health data for stroke surveillance.…”

ICD-10: History and Context

“…The French physician and botanist Dr François Bossier de Sauvages de Lacroix developed a categorization of 10 distinct classes of diseases, which were further divided into 2400 unique diseases. 1 Across time, this "International List of Causes of Death" was updated and published about once per decade in 1900, 1910, 1920, 1929, and 1938. 5 The many twists and turns taken by this process during the half-century described are beyond the intended scope of this article.…”