Challenges of Integrating ICD 11 into Automatic Alerting Systems.

ABSTRACT

Automatic alerting systems (AASs) can identify adverse health events but emergency communication relies on human operators and natural languages. For complete automation, we need to code the diversity of adverse events in a granularity that supports optimal dispatches. Hence, AAs shall integrate with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The ICD-11 coding system includes chapters for external causes of injury. However, ICD-11 supports coding injury incidents in electronic health records (EHRs) after they have occurred, while disregarding integrating real-time injury reporting within its framework. We explore the potential challenges associated with integrating ICD-11 into AAS by analyzing external causes of morbidity or mortality and the dimensions of external causes as potential areas of integration. We recognize the themes (i) incident of injury, (ii) mode of transport, (iii) indoor location, (iv) outdoor location, and (v) type of building, and identify four challenges (i) conceptual differences between the two systems, (ii) injury identification, (iii) presence of entities below the shoreline in ICD-11, and (iv) lack of specificity in certain ICD-11 codes related to AASs. For easy integration of ICD-11 into AASs, we recommend an AAS data dictionary and propose ICD-11 updates related to external causes of injury.