Why is ICD important? (and, for non clinical coders, what's ICD?!)

Why is ICD so important? 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently shared a video explaining why ICD is so important. Interested? View their YouTube video here

For all the non Clinical Coders out there – ICD stands for The International Classification of Diseases and  is the international 'standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes'. ICD is made up of thousands of codes that are used around the world to classify diseases and conditions. This information can be used to generate statistics (for example, morbidity and mortality stats) and it can be used to monitor health and treatment trends across the globe. These codes are what our clinical coders use to classify what the problem is when you take a trip to the hospital. 

For a discussion on our latest clinical coding requirements, or the availability of clinical coders, please contact Tom Blakey

Credit:  World Health Organization http://www.who.int/en/