In the US, the race is on to comply with ICD-10 by 1 October 2013!
Take a look at this info-graphic from teksystems.com about the race to this finish line. It tells the story about the healthcare system in the US and their partnership with healthcare vendors to implement ICD-10 there.
We in Malaysia, had no such fiery race but a finish line to switch over from ICD-9 to ICD-10 during the transition period from as early as 1998 to our finish line on 31 December 1998, and we started using ICD-10 by 1 January 1999 in our morbidity and mortality reporting systems, some 14 YEARS earlier than in the US!
I think as HIM/MR professionals, we are the ones who need to spearhead the next big thing in ICD, that is ICD-11 when medical records systems in Malaysia would probably be IT driven. Our hospital IT departments are usually with a young and usually inexperienced workforce(my experiences and opinion). I also think it will be wise to take the lead and not make them to struggle with the then implementation of ICD-11 or even ICD-10 if your hospital plans to go the EMR way in the foreseeable years, because they would be lacking the experience, skills and bandwidth to handle ICD systems.
