Further development of ICD-10 of WHO

As an international classification, ICD-10 of WHO is used in many countries. To that end, it is translated into the national language under consideration of the country-specific medical terminology (in Germany as ICD-10-WHO) or additionally adapted to country-specific requirements (ICD-10-GM). Compatibility with the original version is to be maintained, i.e. updates decided by WHO are to be adopted for the national versions.

Annual updates

ICD-10 of WHO is updated annually on the basis of suggestions from user countries. Major updates are encoding-relevant changes on the three-character code level, i.e. the level of international reporting; minor updates are changes from the four-character level down. After the main conference each year, WHO publishes an annual update with the list of changes. Version 2019 marks the end of the regular update cycle for the ICD-10-WHO. Changes to the international edition of the ICD-10 will only be published by WHO in exceptional cases.
Updates at WHO

Implementation date and publication of online versions

The approval of a proposed change at the annual main conference also includes the setting of the implementation date, i.e. the year that the change is going to become effective. As a general rule, changes do not become effective in the subsequent year because countries require time for their implementation; changes approved in one year can become effective at completely different times. Major changes only become valid every third year.

Adoption of WHO updates into the German versions ICD-10-WHO and ICD-10-GM

The currently valid version of ICD-10-WHO is version 2019. It contains all WHO amendments with implementation dates up to 2019. Version 2019 marks the end of the regular update cycle for the ICD-10-WHO. Changes to the international edition of the ICD-10 will only be published by WHO in exceptional cases.

At present, ICD-10-GM is published annually. In addition to Germany-specific changes resulting from the annual proposal procedure for ICD-10-GM, the current version also contains all WHO amendments with implementation dates up to this respective year.
Proposal procedure for ICD-10-GM

Eleventh revision of the ICD

In parallel to the further development of ICD-10, a fundamental revision was in progress.

ICD-11 is available since June 2018 and was adopted by the WHA72 in May 2019.

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