WHO-FIC and ICD-10-AM

How the WHO-FIC work affects ICD-10-AM

The development of ICD-10-AM Eighth Edition will be influenced by changes to ICD-10 (as previous editions have been), through the functions of two WHO-FIC committees – The Update and Revision Committee (URC) and the Morbidity Reference Group (MbRG).  The NCCC has membership of both of these committees and will be ensuring that changes to ICD-10 over the next 2-3 years are incorporated into the eighth edition of ICD-10-AM due for implementation in Australia from July 2013.

WHO Update and Revision Committee

The Update and Revision Committee (URC) is responsible for developing detailed proposals for annual meetings, organisation of reference groups for specific areas of interest, identification of where major revision is required and how such a revision could be undertaken. For more information on the URC see here.

WHO Morbidity Reference Group (MbRG)

The URC includes a subgroup called the Morbidity Reference Group.  Kerry Innes (ICD Coordinator, NCCC) co-chairs the MbRG with Olafr Steinum from Sweden.

The purpose of the MbRG is to improve international comparability of morbidity data and the application of ICD in morbidity data collection by analysing and integrating needs deriving from statistics (e.g. hospital data), casemix (e.g. DRG systems) and clinical documentation (e.g. clinical terminology and electronic health records). 

The MbRG is currently reviewing the ICD-10 morbidity rules in Volume 2 and amending them where necessary.  These proposed amendments will be considered by the URC at the October 2010 meeting in Toronto Canada.