Abstract
After more than a decade in the revision process, the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) has been released by the World Health Organization in June, 2018. Under the strong leadership of Professor Kentaro Sugano, the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology has made significant contribution to supporting the revision process of ICD-11 by forming an ICD-11 committee consisting of approximately 20 international and 30 domestic members, which was chaired by Professors Soichiro Miura, Hiroto Miwa (from 2015-), and Peter Malfertheiner (Germany) for the gastroenterology working group, and Professors Sumiko Nagoshi, Emmet B Keeffe (USA, -until 2011) and Geofferey C Farrell (Australia, from 2011-) for the hepatology and pancreaticobiliary working group. Our primary tasks were to advise on the development of the ICD-11 coding structure and to review and comment on proposals from other stakeholders and experts on the ICD-11 proposal platform.
The latest version of ICD-11 still needs to be refined, especially in areas overlapping with other disciplines (e.g. infectious diseases and neoplasms). The necessity of developing a specialty linearization for gastroenterology should be discussed in order to promote implementation of ICD-11 in Japan.
