Australian Collaborating Centre

NCHIRT participates in the work of the Australian Collaborating Centre for the Family of International Classifications (ACC). The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare hosts the ACC and has been most recently designated by WHO for the period 2010-2014.

The current head of the ACC is Ms Jenny Hargreaves, Senior Executive, Hospitals and Performance Group, AIHW. The terms of reference for the ACC are:

 To promote the development and use of the WHO Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC) including:

• The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) for mortality statistics, hospital morbidity statistics and hospital medical record indexing and contribute to its improvement in light of practical experience
• The International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) and contribute to its development in light of practical experience
• Other related and derived members of the WHO-FIC, including as appropriate, national modifications in their specific areas of application and contribute to their development in light of practical experience

To promote the quality use of WHO-FIC classifications in data collections and data analysis by participating in quality assurance procedures regarding norms for use, training and data collection and application  rules

To prepare teaching materials and organize and conduct training courses on the implementation and use of members of the WHO-FIC in Australia and WHO regions, and to contribute to the development of common international training tools and internet-based applications by preparing translations and adaptations of the tools

To improve member classifications, both locally and through WHO structures by studying aspects related to the structure, interpretations and application of members of the WHO-FIC including those concerning taxonomy, linguistics, terminology and nomenclature;

To contribute to the development of methodologies for the use of the WHO-FIC to facilitate the measurement of health status, interventions and outcomes on a sufficiently consistent and reliable basis to permit comparisons within countries over time and within and between countries at the same point in time which includes the creation of comparable lists, correspondence tables and comparability studies

To develop the family of health classifications, its scope and criteria for membership and including new members such as health interventions, external causes of injury and primary care

To support the work of the WHO-FIC committees and reference groups established to assist WHO in the development, testing, implementation, use, improvement, updating and revision of the members of the WHO-FIC including:

• Committees (Planning Committee of WHO-FIC, Family Development Committee, Update Reference Committee, Education Committee, Implementation Committee, and electronic Tolls Committee), and
• Reference Groups (Mortality, Morbidity and Functioning and Disability)

To establish networks with current and potential users of the WHO-FIC and act as a reference centre (eg clearing house for good practice guidelines and the resolution of problems problems) for information about the WHO-FIC and other health-related classifications including:

• The availability, suitability and applicability of the classifications for different purposes,
• Coding practices,
• Availability of tools for implementation, and
• Data analysis and interpretation

To assist the WHO Headquarters and the Regional Office in the preparation of members of the WHO-FIC and other relevant materials in the English language and to act as a reference centre for that language on all matters related to the WHO-FIC

To support existing and potential users of the WHO-FIC by establishing Memoranda of Understanding with WHO Regional Offices to assist the implementation of the WHO-FIC classifications throughout the Region (eg WPRO, SEARO and AFRO)

To establish agreements with other Member States, for example, New Zealand, to assist the work of the Australian Centre

To present periodic reports of the Centre’s activities to the annual meetings of the Heads of WHO Collaborating Centres for the WHO Family of International Classifications

To provide Chairs for the WHO-FIC Committees.

For more information about the ACC and its activities, please visit http://www.aihw.gov.au/who-family-of-international-classifications/ Questions about the ACC can be directly to Sue Walker or to who_fic@aihw.gov.au.