Belize Advances Health Data System With ICD-11 Integration

Belize is taking a major step to improve its healthcare system by upgrading how it manages health data. The Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW), with support from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), is implementing a new international standard for classifying diseases, called the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11). This new system will be integrated into Belize’s Clinical Data Exchange Platform (CDEP).  This move is part of Belize’s wider push for digital transformation in healthcare, aiming to make health information more consistent, accurate, and useful.  Dr. Karen Lewis-Bell from PAHO/WHO in Belize emphasized that adopting the ICD-11 is a “strategic step in the broader digital transformation and universal access policy that Belize has undertaken.”  With this incorporation, data will be made more reliable and easier to share between different platforms; it would align Belize with global practices in disease classification; and would assist medical practitioners in making more informed choices.  According to the ministry’s Dr. Francis Morey, this move will provide an improved level of detail and accuracy in analyzing morbidity and mortality data, disease surveillance, help to identify outbreaks sooner, track disease progression more effectively, and implement targeted public health interventions.///////