WHO’s ICD-11 comes into effect

On 11 February 2022, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Eleventh Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) came into effect. The ICD, which provides a common language that supports health professionals to share standardised information across the world, is a source for identifying health trends and statistics worldwide, containing around 17,000 unique codes for injuries, diseases and causes of death, underpinned by more than 120,000 codable terms. By using code combinations, more than 1.6 million clinical situations can now be coded. 

Unlike previous versions, ICD-11 is entirely digital with a new format and multilingual capabilities that is hoped will reduce the risk of error. ICD-11 has been compiled and updated with input from over 90 countries and the involvement of healthcare providers. 

Source: WHO, 11 February 2022