Working at a research facility affiliated with a U.S.
government hospital, this pilot fish becomes acquainted with ICD-9 codes for the statistical classification of diseases.But it bothers him that the codes allow for reporting an issue but not for reporting resolution: There a code for having high blood pressure, but none for returning to normal, and there a code for a broken right wrist, but none to indicate that it has healed.So in a review meeting with the researchers, fish asks about their assumptions: &Since there is no ICD-9 for ‘no longer has high blood pressure,& how do we differentiate the two conditions, just-not-taking-medicine and no-longer-needs-medicine?&