State of the Art Expanding on the use of The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Examples and resources

Soraya Maart, Catherine Sykes

About the author(s) Soraya Maart, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Catherine Sykes, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

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Abstract

Most physiotherapists today are familiar with the abbreviation ICF and know that it stands for the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health; the title of the World Health Organization’s international standard for describing health and health related states. Most universities in South Africa and globally have adopted the framework of the ICF in their curricula especially in promoting clinical reasoning, however, translating that knowledge for recording and monitoring has been slow in coming. Less well known, is how the ICF is and can be used and how it can inform physiotherapy practice, research, education and administration. Our article outlines the importance of the ICF to physiotherapy and recommends resources to facilitate expanded ICF use by physiotherapists. Examples are given of how to use coding and the importance of aggregating data and concluding with resources that can assist with the expanded use. Sufficient evidence and resources are available to support the expanded use of the ICF for data collection and clinical coding.

Clinical implications: The aggregation of data can be used for the monitoring of universal health coverage especially in the context of National Health Insurance implementation.

Keywords

ICF; framework; clinical practice; evidence; coding

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