For the January CORT lecture, we were joined by Dr Islam Ibrahim.
Dr Ibrahim leads the morbidity data team at the National Center for Health Information, Ministry of Health, Kuwait.
Her team has successfully piloted and implemented ICD-11 in the biggest public hospital in the country. She is a physician and holds a master’s degree in public health and a PhD in Biomedical Informatics and Medical Statistics. She is also a member of the Morbidity Reference Group and the Education and Implementation Committee (EIC) of the WHO Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC) network.
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) is the internationally recognized standard for reporting diagnoses that allows us to have health statistics for decision making at national and international levels. ICD-10 was released by the World Health Organization in the early 1990s, however, our health systems have remarkably changed since then. Electronic medical records are now the norm, and reimbursement in many countries is based on casemix systems that require a more detailed level of diagnosis reporting. These factors and more call for a new ICD to match the requirements of this digital age and eliminate the need for country-specific modifications that jeopardize the comparability of morbidity data.
ICD-11, which is completely electronic, was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2019. It is a global public good that is free to use and is annually updated. It also comes with a transparent proposal mechanism that allows experts and users from all over the world to contribute to improving its content.
This lecture, ‘The Road to ICD-11', introduced ICD-11 highlighting the different features and functionalities of its freely available electronic coding tool. Real-life examples are used to demonstrate its use for reporting cases of CO poisoning. Finally, you will be taken on an ICD-11 implementation journey using a case study, with a special focus on training physicians.