The 5th revision of the Korean Standard Classification of Diseases

한국표준질병사인분류의 개정에 관하여

The 5th revision of Korean Classification of Diseases(KCD) became effective on January 1, 2008. It has reflected the changes made to the tenth revision of International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) between 1998 and 2005 and the suggestions of academic and related societies in Korea. Two important alterations seem to have a major implication in the insurance industry. One would be the official introduction of a Korean version of International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third edition(ICD-O-3). The borderline ovarian tumor is classified as a borderline neoplasm, which was classified as a malignant neoplasm in the previous edition of International Classification of Diseases for Oncology. The other would be the appearance of non-C-code malignant neoplasm for the diseases, such as polycythemia vera, newly classified as a malignant neoplasm by the current edition of International Classification of Diseases for Oncology. The National Office of Statistics(NSO) adopted the way of implementation used in the Australian Modification of International Classification of Diseases(ICD-10-AM), instead of assigning them into corresponding C code. Overall, the changes made in this revision doesn't seem to have a serious impact on the insurance industry since it has only reflected updates made to ICD-10.