Background
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is revised every 10 years to ensure its continued currency and utility. The current revision (ICD-10) was approved in 1990 by the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Australian implementation of ICD-10 was staggered across 1997 and 1998. ICD-10 was implemented for mortality coding and an Australian modification of ICD-10 (ICD-10-AM) was implemented for morbidity coding. Both are still in operation today.
The eleventh revision (ICD-11) of the ICD was formally launched in 2007 and overseen by a Revision Steering Group. A content model was developed, providing the ICD with a rich foundation. This foundation of all ICD entities is the underlying database that enables the generation of Tabular Lists according to use case. For example, the ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (known as the ICD-11 MMS) is a tabular list enabling the recording and reporting diseases and causes of death. Other Tabular Lists can be created for use cases such as Primary Care, Dermatological Diseases, Neurology and Ophthalmology.
There are anticipated to be substantial benefits from ICD-11’s shift to a digital platform that supports greater integration with digital health applications and technologies (through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)), as well as efficiencies through better support of automated coding of data. There is also potential for better and increased data with the ICD-11 with more granular coding of many areas within health care, such as injuries, self-harm and suicide, and family, sexual and domestic violence, as well as addressing known data gaps that exist in ICD-10.
ICD-11 activities in Australia
The AIHW has been leading implementation activities in Australia. The following provides information on the activities lead or undertaken by the WHO Australian Collaborating Centre (ACC), since 2007.
Australian ICD-11 Task Force
The establishment of the Australian ICD-11 Task Force (AITF) was a recommendation from the ICD-11 Review stakeholder consultation report published in 2020. The main objective of the AITF is to develop and undertake a broad multi-year Roadmap of activities required to inform a decision on implementation of ICD-11 in Australia in a range of contexts.
An invitation was sent to the Health Data and Digital Transformation Collaboration (HDDTC) jurisdictional members in March 2022 seeking members for this Task Force. Currently, the AITF has representation from all states and territories, as well as a number of Commonwealth agencies.
The AITF was originally established in July 2023 for 1 year by the Australian Health Classification Advisory Committee to develop the Roadmap of activities, but has subsequently been extended to the end of 2026 to undertake and guide the activities in the Roadmap. It is the AITF’s aim that the activities on the Roadmap be completed (as much as possible) by the end of 2026.
The Roadmap outlines activities that will need to be undertaken to assess the ICD-11 for a particular use case, from jurisdictional to national level, or from a mortality, admitted care, primary care, and other healthcare sector perspectives. This is to ensure that all potential evidence is collected in order to make an informed decision across all use cases.
Australian ICD-11 Task Force resources
AITF Terms of reference [PDF 122KB]
AITF Vision statement [PDF 121KB]
Health Classifications Updates
The Health Classifications Updates provide the latest information about national and international health classification activities. These updates are produced twice a year and have a focus on activities related to the WHO-FIC reference classifications with a primary focus on ICD-11. This is part of the developing communications and education strategies to keep people informed as we work toward a decision on Australia’s approach to ICD-11.
- As part of socialising the ICD-11 in Australia, three workshops were held in 2017, 2018 and in 2021 to provide an update on the progress of ICD-11 development by WHO and ascertain issues and considerations for its potential implementation in Australia.
- The AIHW commissioned Shepheard Management Consultants to undertake in depth consultations with stakeholders during late 2018 and early 2019, resulting in a number of recommendations to assist the ICD-11 decision making process in Australia. The ICD-11 Review stakeholder consultation report was published in 2020.
- The third stakeholder workshop in 2021 was held to validate the recommendations made in this report.
- In 2016-17, as part of the then ICD-11 Revision project plan, the AIHW lead the first phase of morbidity field testing of the ICD-11 MMS in Australia, on behalf of WHO. The goals of this field testing were to:
- inform whether ICD-11 was fit for purpose
- identify any changes and enhancements that may be required
- confirm any transitional and implementation issues.
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted ICD-11 MMS field testing for mortality purposes at the same time. Results from both tests showed more work was required on ICD-11.
- Phase 2 morbidity field testing followed in 2017, with Phase 3 undertaken in 2018. These tests assessed the ease of use of the post-coordination functions of the classification and more complex scenarios for coding.
Further information
If you would like further information on ICD-11 please contact the ACC at the following details and refer to our ICD-11 FAQs and other resources.
Contact details
Secretariat, Australian WHO-FIC Collaborating Centre
PO Box 570
Canberra ACT 2601
Email: [email protected]