Coding Standards
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health(ICF)
WHO classification for describing how a condition affects body functions, activities, and participation, complementary to ICD diagnoses.
Definition
ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) is the WHO's framework for describing functioning and disability, complementary to ICD's diagnostic content. Where ICD-10-CM tells you what disease the patient has, ICF tells you how it affects the person: their body functions, body structures, activities, participation, and the environmental and personal factors around them.
ICF codes are alphanumeric with a component letter (b body functions, s body structures, d activities and participation, e environmental factors) followed by a numeric chapter and detail level. Qualifiers append severity (0-4) after a decimal: e.g., d450.3 "walking, severe difficulty".
WHO publishes ICF Core Sets that bundle the most relevant ICF categories for specific conditions (e.g., low back pain, stroke, multiple sclerosis), used in rehabilitation and disability assessment. AutoICD ships ICF Core Sets for 12+ common conditions and can map clinical text to ICF categories alongside the diagnosis.
When to use
- •Rehabilitation, occupational therapy, physical therapy, or disability case management.
- •Functional outcomes research that needs a structured language for activities and participation.
- •Cross-mapping diagnosis-only data to a functioning-aware view.
Try it in AutoICD API
Look up the ICF Core Set for an ICD-10 code
curl https://autoicdapi.com/v1/icf/core-set/M54.5 \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AUTOICD_API_KEY"Language: bash. View full API docs · Get an API key.