ICD-10

Last update: December 18th, 2023

Current version

International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), for medical coding and reporting in the United States. The ICD-10-CM is a morbidity classification for classifying diagnoses and reason for visits in all American health care settings. The ICD-10-CM is based on the ICD-10, the statistical classification of disease published by the World Health Organization (WHO) which replaces ICD-9.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is the standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes, that was endorsed by the Forty-third World Health Assembly in May 1990 and came into use in World Health Organization (WHO) Member States as from 1994. This includes the analysis of the general health situation of population groups and contains over 70,000 unique codes for injuries, diseases and causes of death (all them included in KiencePHC). It provides a common language that allows health professionals to share health information across the globe. It is used to monitor the incidence and prevalence of diseases and other health problems, proving a picture of the general health situation of countries and populations.

ICD-10's Scope

ICD is used by physicians, nurses, other providers, researchers, health information managers and coders, health information technology workers, policy-makers, insurers and patient organizations to classify diseases and other health problems recorded on many types of health and vital records, including death certificates and health records.

In addition to enabling the storage and retrieval of diagnostic information for clinical, epidemiological and quality purposes, these records also provide the basis for the compilation of national mortality and morbidity statistics by WHO Member States. Finally, ICD is also used for reimbursement and resource allocation decision-making by countries.

Beyond ICD-10

Finally, WHO released new International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) at the 72nd World Health Assembly in May 2019 and came into effect on 1 January 2022.