« Un plus un, ça ne fait pas toujours deux » : le codage médical en coulisse

Abstract

While the field of big data in health is filled with codes of various types, social sciences have shown little interest in the more “traditional” codes that make up the International Classifications of Diseases. Yet these codes are the building blocks of the health system, as are the professions entitled to make them exist and evolve. Through the analysis of written sources such as textbooks, reports or classifications, combined with interviews and observations obtained from medical coding professionals, this article not only revisits the underlying stakes in the successive publications of the International Classification of Diseases in terms of code selection, but also explores the daily professional life of those who have to select codes for each and every hospitalized patient.

Keywords

• medical coding
• health data
• classification of diseases
• professionalization
• diagnosis