Historical development of the statistical classification of causes of death and diseases

Abstract

Abstract:  This paper offers an historical overview of international mortality/healthcare classification systems, covering developments from the International List of Causes of Death (ILCD) through to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The ICD is a global data system established to classify diseases and mortality causes. The past few decades have seen a dramatic increase in use of the ICD, paralleling its improved efficiency and integration into the health information management (HIM) arena. The ICD, published by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1984, is the successor to ICLD-5 and assigns codes to every health diagnosis. The 10th revision of the WHO International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10-CM) is the latest version, and the 11th is currently under development. A clinical classification and coding schedule is essential for improving and refining clinical data systems in numerous ways, including treatment selection, cause-of-death reporting, eligibility selection, the facilitation of health insurance claims, data storage, health service evaluation, health policy, the management of epidemiological diseases, resource allocation and the reduction of potential costs. All these contribute to proper development and planning within healthcare services. ICD has become the universal standard.

Keywords:

• ILCD
• ICD
• WHO
• classification
• statistical

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

The clinical coding process involves translating a physician’s clinical documentation relating to the diagnoses and interventions of individual patient cases into codes, according to a basic classification schedule. Thus, it is regarded as an essential tool in the improvement of healthcare in that it provides feedback based on statistical compilations and analyses of, for example, disease occurrence, medication and procedure success, and recovery rates. In addition, it provides background demographic data on a geographical or individual basis. The coding of information transcends language barriers, enabling data to be collected and analysed at a global level. In current practice, such as in hospital settings, the primary purpose of coding relates to the submission of health insurance and medical aid reimbursement claims, whereas use of the data in statistics and research is secondary.

Notes

1. Alharbi, M. A., Tolchard, B., & Isouard, G. (2019). Developing and Measuring the Reliability and Validity of the Factors Influencing the Implementation of ICD- 10-AM and Clinical Coding in Saudi Public Hospitals. Global Journal of Health Science, 11(10), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v11n10p1.

2. Alharbi, M. A., Isouard, G., & Tolchard, B. (2020). Health information literature across the cultural evolutionary divide. Cogent Social Sciences, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2020.1728947.

3. Alharbi, M. A., Isouard, G., & Tolchard, B. (2019). The Development of ICD Adaptations and Modifications as Background to a Potential Saudi Arabia’s National Version. Global Journal of Health Science, 11(11), 158–167. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v11n11p158.

4. This “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry All Nations” (The Great Exhibition) was the first of these events, popular in the nineteenth century.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Musaed Ali Alharbi

This paper is a small portion of a chapter in a larger project (Factors Influencing the Implementation of Clinical Coding/ICD in Saudi Public Hospitals). Together, the research team for this project has examined the knowledge of large-scale implementations of the ICD across health systems in the developed and developing world. The research group has published the questionnaire design and theoretical framework development used in the project^1,2. In this paper, the authors provide a general overview of the historical development of disease classification. We review the beginnings of the WHO’s ICD in the statistical classification of mortalities, before the emergence of national modifications of ICD classification. This has also been published in a separate paper³, based on the literature drawn from several developed nations, and the ICD-implementation literature of Thailand and its neighbouring Asia–Pacific network of developing nations.