The ICD is the international standard diagnostic classification for all general epidemiological purposes, many health management purposes and clinical use. These include analysis of the general health situation of population groups and monitoring the incidence and prevalence of diseases, as well as other health problems with respect to variables such as the characteristics and circumstances of the individuals affected, reimbursement, casemix, resource allocation, quality, patient safety, and guidelines.

ICD is used for health information purposes in public health, primary, secondary and tertiary care settings. In particular, it is used to classify diseases, accidents, reasons for encounter, and other health problems recorded on many types of health and vital records including death certificates and health records. In addition to facilitating the storage and retrieval of diagnostic information for clinical, epidemiological and quality purposes, the resulting records form the basis for compiling national mortality and morbidity statistics by WHO Member States. ICD serves a language-independent framework for classification of diseases and has been translated into more than 40 languages.

ICD-10, Fifth edition, 2016 revision includes more than 100 edits, updates and clarifications since 2010.

Highlights in Volume 1 include introduction of the new WHO dengue classification, distinction between seasonal and zoonotic or pandemic influenza, update to the terminology of haematological tumours in line with the recent developments in the field, added detail for atrial fibrillation and flutter. The coding scheme of haemorrhoids has been updated and moved to the digestive system chapter. Further changes include a new code to document female genital mutilation, a range of emergency codes, and additional details for coding of antibiotic resistance. The reference to the outdated morphology codes has been totally eliminated, and users are now encouraged to use the histopathology list of ICD-O directly.

In Volume 2, instructions on mortality coding have been fully rewritten, for more clarity - but without changing the rules. The appendices include the new death certificate, a form for the recommended additional information for perinatal deaths, and a flyer on how to fill in the medical certificate of cause of death. Users are encouraged to use only one certificate of causes of death for all cases, including perinatal deaths.

Volume 3 has been updated to match changes in Volume 1.