Evidence Hub

A case for the introduction of the ICD-11 in Germany

Stausberg J, Bartkowski R, Gaebel W, Treede RD

German medical science : GMS e-journal, 2026

Abstract

Since its adoption by the World Health Assembly in 2019, the 11th Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) has been set to replace ICD-10. The old revision is no longer maintained by World Health Organization (WHO). In Germany, a national advisory board (Kuratorium für Fragen der Kodiersysteme im Gesundheitswesen (KKG)) of the Ministry of Health is concerned with ICD-11 since 2013. Members of the KKG Working Group ICD-11 from the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF) describe in this paper the need for a careful, well planned and timely transition from ICD-10 to ICD-11. The transition to ICD-11 ensures a valid representation of medical progress with the coded diagnoses and seizes opportunities of digitization for health care and science. Combining a unique documentation of medical facts with their multiple use for daily health care and research as well as for reimbursement and health policy should be the ultimate goal. This goal demands a one-time coding covering different coding systems in order to bridge a transitional period with parallel support of ICD-10 and ICD-11 on the one hand and to support further policy areas, e.g. with SNOMED CT, on the other hand. In particular, the use of generative artificial intelligence offers a high potential to achieve this goal. Even though estimating the time required is always subject to a high degree of uncertainty given the nature of the…

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free