With the inclusion of chronic pain in the new ICD-11 a giant step has been taken. The inclusion of chronic pain conditions in the ICD-11 will increase the recognition of chronic pain as a health problem in its own right and contribute to improved access to adequate pain treatment for patients with chronic pain worldwide.
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is the international standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management, research, and clinical purposes as well as the international standard for reporting diseases and health conditions. The ICD allows for:
- Recording individual health conditions at desired level of detail. This is why it is used in many countries’ health systems to diagnose conditions and determine which treatment is received
- Generating of health care statistics and reimbursement information
- Sharing and comparing health information between hospitals, regions, settings and countries
- Comparing data in the same country across different time periods.
The ICD is updated in regular intervals to reflect the current state of health knowledge. Experts, international societies for the medical areas and professions, patients and their organizations are brought together by the World Health Organization (WHO) to revise the ICD. The current version is the 10th edition. However, on 25 May 2019, the World Health Assembly (WHA) has adopted the ICD-11, the latest revision. The ICD-11 is the first classification system to include a systematic
representation of chronic pain and is publicly available via the WHO website. The ICD-11 will come into effect on 1 January 2022.
Do you want to know more about the ICD-11 and ICF?
Then you can read the attached flyers, which offer background information on both.
Further Information can be found on the following links:
– ICF Flyer and Background Information
– Official ICD-11 website of the World Health Organization (WHO)
– Press release: IASP Task Force for the Classification of Chronic Pain in ICD-11
– Pilot field testing of the chronic pain classification for ICD-11
– ICF at the World Health Organisation (WHO) website
– ICF e-Learning Tool