The International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) is a classification method for primary care encounters. The ICPC-3 strives to be a person centered classification for Primary Care, building on the foundations of the ICPC-2. It includes references to existing international standards such as ICD-10, ICD-11, ICF as well as SNOMED CT clinical terminology. It provides a framework for documenting and organizing clinical data from primary care patient contacts.

The ICPC-3 includes codes for the four key elements of healthcare encounters:

• the reason for the encounter (RFE);
• the diagnosis and/or health problem;
• functioning (i.e. information about activities/participation, physiological functions and about personal and environmental factors related to the health problem);
• processes of care.

History[edit]

The ICPC was developed by the WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC), and was first published in 1987 by Oxford University Press (OUP). A revision and inclusion of criteria and definitions was published in 1998. The second revision was accepted within the World Health Organization's (WHO) Family of International Classifications.^[1] The third revision, ICPC-3, has been adopted by WONCA in December 2020 and endorsed on April 16, 2021 during the WONCA Executive meeting^[2]. 

The classification was developed in a context of increasing demand for quality information on primary care as part of growing worldwide attention to global primary health care objectives, including the WHO's target of "health for all".^[3]

The first version of ICPC, which was published in 1987, is referred to as ICPC-1. A subsequent revision which was published in the 1993 publication The International Classification of Primary Care in the European Community: With a Multi-Language Layer is known as ICPC-E.

The 1998 publication, of version 2, is referred to as ICPC-2. The acronym ICPC-2-E, refers to a revised electronic version, which was released in 2000.

The ICPC-3 Project^[4] started January 2018 and published the ICPC-3 in 2020. ICPC-3 supports coding of reason(s) for encounter, symptoms and complaints, diagnoses, health problems, functioning, environmental factors, personal factors related to health and processes of care, all within one classification.

Browsers[edit]

The following versions of the ICPC are available at the ICPC-3 Website [1]:

• ICPC-1e (version 1.0)
• ICPC-2e (version 7.0)
• ICPC-3 (International 2024 version)
• ICPC-3 (Portuguese 2024 version)

See also[edit]

• Classifications
  • Medical classification
  • Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System (ATC classification for drugs)
  • Classification of Pharmaco-Therapeutic Referrals (CPR)
  • International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
  • International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD)
  • ICPC-2 PLUS
• Health care
  • Family medicine / Family practice
  • General practice / General practitioner
  • Primary care
  • Primary health care
  • Referral (medicine)
• Health informatics
  • Electronic health record
  • International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee on Health Informatics
• World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA)
  • WONCA International Classification Committee (WICC)

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Napel H. ten, et al. Improving Primary Health Care Data With ICPC-3: From a Medical to a Person-Centered Perspective. The Annals of Family Medicine July 2022, 20 (4) 358-361

External links[edit]

• WICC at WONCA
• Primary Healthcare Classification Consortium (Classification Committee)
• University of Sydney Family Medicine Research Centre
• ICPC publication bibliography