12-13 June 2018, Zanzibar:The International Classification of Disease, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11) is a system of medical coding created by the World Health Organization (WHO) for documenting diagnoses, diseases, signs and symptoms and social circumstances.  The ICD is important because it provides a common language for reporting and monitoring diseases. This allows the world to compare and share data in a consistent and standard way – between hospitals, regions and countries and over periods of time. It facilitates the collection and storage of data for analysis and evidence-based decision-making.

This month, the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health conducted a 2-day training on the recently released ICD- 11 to 25 participants from four countries:  Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Namibia. The training was a hands-on working and interactive session with the objective of piloting the newly developed ICD- 11 tool and discuss on how to operationalize it.  

The training was officiated by the Principal Secretary of Ministry if Health Zanzibar, Ms Asha Abdalla who remarked that the need for correct data on health status is critical to enable governments plan on interventions and monitor health status.  She also reaffirmed the commitment from the Zanzibar Government to work with WHO in the implementation of ICD 11 noting that Zanzibar is best placed to be among the pilot sites. The WHO remarks were given by Dr Ghirmay Andemichael, WHO’s liaison officer in Zanzibar who stressed on the need for countries to be at the fore front in tracking morbidity, mortality and cause of death to inform planning and decision making.  The facilitators introduced the ICD-11 key features and comparison with the current ICD-10.

ICD 11 is building on its predecessor IDC 10 and incorporates a more interactive Web platform, with daily updates and a search site, to help physicians call upon codes more easily. In addition, ICD-11 will be released in multiple languages.

Participants were provided an opportunity to practice the coding and familiarize with the system and shared experience in the implementation of the ICD -10. Among the challenges identified were capacity for both human and infrastructure to support the implementation which calls for countries to invest in capacity building of the health care providers and information systems staff. 

Participants were trained to use both ICD10 and ICD11 web-browsers. They were assigned to code 100 frequent diseases. The results were compared among themselves and gold standards,  which were analyze using ICD-FIT dashboard tool with score and variation display.Participating countries planned on how to move forward the ICD-11 tool.

“The ICD is a product that WHO is truly proud of," says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It enables us to understand so much about what makes people get sick and die, and to take action to prevent suffering and save lives."