Diagnosis codes
Encyclopedia
In healthcare, diagnostic codes are used to group and identify diseases, disorders, symptoms, human response patterns, and medical sign
s, and are used to measure morbidity and mortality
. As the plural with the name of this lemma indicates, there will be never one code for all purposes, but many codes for some distinct purposes each.
The codes may be quite frequently revised as new knowledge is attained. DSM (see below) changes some of its coding to correspond to the codes in ICD. In 2005, for example, DSM changed the diagnostic codes for circadian rhythm sleep disorders from the 307-group to the 327-group; the new codes reflect the moving of these disorders from the Mental Disorders section to the Neurological section in the ICD.
Medical sign
A medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination of a patient....
s, and are used to measure morbidity and mortality
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. As the plural with the name of this lemma indicates, there will be never one code for all purposes, but many codes for some distinct purposes each.
The codes may be quite frequently revised as new knowledge is attained. DSM (see below) changes some of its coding to correspond to the codes in ICD. In 2005, for example, DSM changed the diagnostic codes for circadian rhythm sleep disorders from the 307-group to the 327-group; the new codes reflect the moving of these disorders from the Mental Disorders section to the Neurological section in the ICD.
Commonly used diagnosis coding systems
- ICD-9-CMICDThe International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is a medical classification that provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease...
(volumes 1 and 2 only. Volume 3 contains Procedure codesProcedure codesProcedure codes are numbers or alphanumeric codes used to identify specific health interventions taken by medical professionals.-International:...
) - ICD-10ICDThe International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems is a medical classification that provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease...
- ICPC-2International Classification of Primary CareThe International Classification of Primary Care is a classification method for primary care encounters. It allows for the classification of the patient’s reason for encounter , the problems/diagnosis managed, primary or general health care interventions, and the ordering of the data of the...
(Also includes reasons for encounter (RFE), Procedure codesProcedure codesProcedure codes are numbers or alphanumeric codes used to identify specific health interventions taken by medical professionals.-International:...
and process of care) - ICSD, The International Classification of Sleep DisordersInternational Classification of Sleep DisordersThe International Classification of Sleep Disorders is "a primary diagnostic, epidemiological and coding resource for clinicians and researchers in the field of sleep and sleep medicine."...
- NANDANANDANANDA International is a professional organization of nurses standardized nursing terminology that was officially founded in 1982 and develops, researches, disseminates and refines the nomenclature, criteria, and taxonomy of nursing diagnoses...
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders...
or DSM-IV (primarily psychiatric disorders) - Mendelian Inheritance in ManMendelian Inheritance in ManOnline Mendelian Inheritance in Man is a database that catalogues all the known diseases with a genetic component, and—when possible—links them to the relevant genes in the human genome and provides references for further research and tools for genomic analysis of a catalogued gene. OMIM is one...
(genetic diseases only) - Read code used throughout United Kingdom General Practice computerised records
- SNOMED (D axis)
Weaknesses
Generally coding is a concept of modeling reality with reduced effort but with physical copying.- Hence the result of coding is a reduction to the scope of representation as far as possible to be depicted with the chosen modeling technology. There will be never an escape, but choosing more than one model to serve more than one purpose. That led to various code derivatives, all of them using one basic reference code for ordering as e.g. with ICD-10 coding. However, concurrent depiction of several models in one image remains principally impossible.
- Focusing a code on one purpose lets other purposes unsatisfied. This has to be taken into account when advertising for any coding concept. The operability of coding is generally bound to purpose. Inter-referring must be subject of evolutionary development, as code structures are subject of frequent change.
- Unambiguous coding requires strict restriction to hierarchical tree structures possibly enhanced with multiple links, but no parallel branching for contemporary coding whilst maintaining bijectivity.
- Spatial depictions of n-dimensional code spaces as coding scheme trees on flat screens may enhance imagination, but still leave the dimensionality of image limited to intelligibility of sketching, mostly as a 3D object on a 2D screen. Pivoting such image does not solve the intelligibility problem.
- Projections of code spaces as flattened graphs may ease the depiction of a code, but generally reduce the contained information with the flattening. There is no explanation given with many of the codes for transforming from one code system to another. That leads to specialized usage and to limitations in communication between codes. The escape is with code reference structures (as e.g. not existing with SNOMED3).
- Hierarchical ordering of more than one code system may be seen as appropriate, as the human body is principally invariant to coding. But the dependency implied with such hierarchies decrease the cross referencing between the code levels down to unintelligibility. The escape is with hyper maps that exceed planar views (as e.g. with SNOMED3) and their referring to other codes (as e.g. yet not existing with SNOMED3).
- Purpose of documenting will be seen as essential just for the validation of a code system in aspects of correctness. However this purpose is timely subordinate to the generating of the respective information. Hence some code system shall support the process of medical diagnosis and of medical treatment of any kind. Escape is with a specialised coding for the processes of working on diagnosis as on working with treatment (as e.g. not intended with SNOMED3).
- Intelligibility of results of coding is achieved by semantic design principles and with ontologies to support navigating in the codes. One major aspect despite the fuzziness of language is the bijectivity of coding. Escape is with explaining the code structure to avoid misinterpreting and various codes for the very same condition (as e.g. yet not served at all with SNOMED3).
See also
- Systematized Nomenclature of MedicineSystematized Nomenclature of MedicineThe Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine is a multiaxial, hierarchical classification system . As in any such system, a disease may be located in a body organ which results in a code in a topography axis and may lead to morphological alterations represented by a morphology code.-Purpose:SNOMED...
- Diagnosis-related groupDiagnosis-related groupDiagnosis-related group is a system to classify hospital cases into one of originally 467 groups. The 467th was "Ungroupable." The system of classification was developed as a collaborative project by Robert B Fetter, PhD of the Yale School of Management, and John D Thompson, MPH of the Yale...
- Medical classificationMedical classificationMedical classification, or medical coding, is the process of transforming descriptions of medical diagnoses and procedures into universal medical code numbers...
- Major Diagnostic CategoryMajor Diagnostic CategoryThe Major Diagnostic Categories are formed by dividing all possible principal diagnoses into 25 mutually exclusive diagnosis areas. MDC codes, like DRG codes, are primarily a claims and administrative data element unique to the United States medical care reimbursement system...
- MedDRAMedDRAMedDRA or Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities is a clinically validated international medical terminology used by regulatory authorities and the regulated biopharmaceutical industry throughout the entire regulatory process, from pre-marketing to post-marketing activities, and for data...