WONCA Working Party: International Classification (WICC)

International Classification (WICC)

The WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC) is WONCA's longest serving committee. It is a large group whose mission is to develop and maintain classifications that accommodate the complete domain of family medicine/general practice.

The WICC has an impressive collection of publications including the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) which classifies patient data and clinical activity in the domains of general practice/family practice and primary care, taking into account the frequency distribution of problems seen in these domains. It allows classification of the patient’s reason for encounter, the problems/diagnosis managed, interventions, and the ordering of these data in an episode of care structure.

Interested persons can contact the Chair for information on how to become an active participant in Committee.

International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) explained December 2016ICPC-2 English websiteICPC-3 English website (launched December 2020)
WICC website Join our working party Ning page (by application only)

Convenor / Chair

Prof Thomas Kühlein(USA)

Email Chair

Thomas is the Professor of General Practice in Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany.

He was born Washington DC, USA, in 1962. His family moved to Germany when he was three years old. He grew up in Munich in the south of Germany. After finishing his studies and training, he worked as a general practitioner in a group practice in Northern Bavaria, in a rural area, for ten years.

In 2006 he went to the University of Heidelberg where he did his habilitation (similar to a PhD). The research topic was on how to gain information about the content of primary medical care from electronic health records. Accordingly the title of the research project was CONTENT (CONTinuous morbidity registration Epidemiologic NeTwork). Data capture in the CONTENT-project was accomplished with the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). Via the CONTENT-project he became member of the WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC).

In Germany, there currently is a severe lack of young general practitioners in the rural areas. This is why the government forced and funded the opening of new institutes of general practice at many German Universities. One of these new institutes is in Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he became the professor, in October 2013. His work at the university is on health services research and teaching. He still sees patients and is leading a group practice in the suburbs of Erlangen in parallel with his university work. In 2016, I became the chair of the WICC at our meeting in Turku/Finland.

He is married to Anna, who is an architect, and has three children. The eldest became a physician and the two younger ones are studying physics and sports sciences.

Co-Convenor or other office bearers

Deputy chair

Kees van Boven (the Netherlands)

Executive Members

Vision and Mission of WONCA Working Party on International Classification (WICC)

The mission of the WONCA International Classification Committee is to develop and maintain classifications that accommodate the complete domain of family/general practice, and to ensure that these classifications are interoperable to the highest degree possible with standard international health care terminologies and classifications, in order to contribute to equitable quality health care worldwide.

Objectives of the WONCA Working Party on International Classification (WICC)

From the mission statement, we derive the following primary goals:

  • To achieve widespread international use of the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC)
  • To maintain and revise ICPC to accommodate expanded health care knowledge
  • To develop productive working relationships with other international standards development organizations
  • To support the work of WICC and WONCA through licensing of ICPC
  • To create and disseminate additional classification tools as needed to capture and codify the complete domain of family/general practice

These goals lead to the following core objectives for the work of WICC:

  • Stabilize ICPC-2 in electronic and print form (version control)
  • Reconcile and maintain maps between ICPC and ICD, ICPC and SNOMED
  • Complete licensing agreements for ICPC-2 in new countries, particularly developing areas
  • Identify a stable and sustainable Web-based host for ICPC-2
  • Develop a training program for ICPC
  • Create and maintain a professional Web presence for WICC
  • Promote additional translations of ICPC and other primary care classification tools
  • Create a “primary care classification package” of ICPC-plus-other terminologies built in to simple open-source health IT intended for use in developing areas
  • Build the conceptual foundation for ICPC-3 (the “primary care data model”)
  • Complete collaborative agreements with WHO and IHTSDO
  • Identify additional classification needs and develop new tools to fill those needs
  • Build capacity for data analysis and field trials within WICC or WONCA
  • Strengthen working relationships with WONCA Informatics Working Party
  • Create an international “Primary Care Classification Consortium” to organize and fund our activities

News

WICC news – ICPC-3 launch on December 15, 2020

The completely modernised International Classification for Primary Care (ICPC) wiil be launched on December 15 and be available without cost, online at www.icpc-3.info, and includes supporting information and training material.

Annual report of the WONCA International Classification Committee

WICC was represented at many WONCA Region Conferences presenting posters or holding workshops on classification topics like ICPC and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The future: WICC will be putting all of its energy into the development of ICPC-3.

ICPC-3 field test invitation

The newest version ICPC-3 designed by the ICPC-3 Consortium in collaboration with the WONCA classification committee is in the testing phase. We would like to invite you to test it.

Publications & Documents

Reports

WICC historical documents

Activities


WICC meeting in Lviv 2018


WICC meeting in Finland in 2016

WICC report 2015-16

History

Relevant Resources

WICC Products

Other WICC links

The COOP / WONCA charts - a way of classifying and recording the overall functional status of the patient as distinct from the status of severity of their health problem(s). 

DUSOI - WONCA severity of illness instrument

WONCA Dictionary of General Practice (2003)
The main purpose of this dictionary is to act as a reference for GPs/FPs throughout the world, so that they can communicate meaningfully about general/family practice now and in the near future. The Dictionary’s ambition is to cover general terms regarding the organization and the work in general/family practice, research, classification, and epidemiology.

Quaternary Prevention Concept  – first do no harm endorsed by WICC

WONCA Membership

Individuals & organizations

WONCA Conferences

Plan for 2021 now

WONCA Publications

Standards, Guidebooks and more