AAOM to Represent US to WHO

The AAOM is requesting feedback from its constituency on developing international standards of classification for East Asian Traditional Medicine within the ICD-10.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has invited the American Association of Oriental Medicine (AAOM) to participate in a meeting whose purpose is to develop international standards of classification for East Asian Traditional Medicine. As the only organization selected to represent the United States, AAOM will be sending Dr. Jeannie Kang, LAc (CA) to serve as an advisor and Marilyn Allen to act as the Media Liaison. Dr. Kang is a past long-term board member of the California State Oriental Medical Association (CSOMA), and Marilyn Allen is the Editor-in-Chief of Acupuncture Today. The meeting is scheduled to take place on June 6-8, 2006 in Seoul, Korea, and its comprehensive results will be published in the September issues of the American Acupuncturist and Acupuncture Today.

The main purpose adopted by WHO is to standardize clinical language and practices as well as the use of evidence-based approaches in traditional medicine. They also recognize a demand for sound health information on traditional medicine.

The upcoming meeting will be the first informal consultation conducted by the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific to include a representative from the United States. The goals established at the last meeting held in Tsukuba, Japan in January are to reach consensus on developing a Classification of East Asian Traditional Medicine (CEATM) and discuss its possible structure; to review and confirm the WHO International Standard Terminologies (IST) as the main resource for the creation of the CEATM; to discuss the process of adapting the IST into the CEATM; and to discuss future plans including possible application for WHO Family of International Classification (FIC).

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) was endorsed by the 43^rd World Health Assembly in May 1990 and came into use in WHO Member States as from 1994. The classification is the latest in a series which has its origins in the 1850's. The first edition, known as the International List of Causes of Death, was adopted by the International Statistical Institute in 1893. WHO took over the responsibility for the ICD at its creation in 1948 when the Sixth Revision was published.

The ICD-10 has become the international standard diagnostic classification for all general epidemiological and many health management purposes. These include the analysis of the general health situation of population groups and monitoring of the incidence and prevalence of diseases and other health problems in relation to other variables such as the characteristics and circumstances of the individuals affected.

It is used to classify diseases and other health problems recorded on many types of health and vital records including death certificates and hospital records. In addition to enabling the storage and retrieval of diagnostic information for clinical and epidemiological purposes, these records also provide the basis for the compilation of national mortality and morbidity statistics by WHO Member States.

OM Constituent Feedback Requested: The AAOM is requesting feedback from its constituency on developing international standards of classification for East Asian Traditional Medicine within the ICD-10. We request you submit your comments via the interactive form provided. AAOM will develop a position paper that will be submitted to WHO, based upon the feedback received from our constituencies nationwide. To assist you in providing input, we are attaching two supporting documents for your review: 1) WHO – Family of International Classifications (PDF): definition, scope and purpose (Revised: 8/2004); and 2) WHO: Principles and process for including classification in the Family of International Classifications (PDF) (Revised: 8/2004).

Please provide your position on developing international standards of classification for East Asian Traditional Medicine within the ICD-10, to include your position on this topic as well as all positives and/or negative impacts that might result from such inclusion.

Visit http://www.aaom.org/interactive.asp?ID=4

We are asking for this information to know the geographic range of responses and should we need to contact you for any clarification on your comments.

Lastly, we are linking the AAOM's position paper sent to WHO on the aforementioned activities.

For more information on the World Health Organization and the ICD-10, please visit http://www.who.int/about/en/ and http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/.